Ranma, the Naive Succubus 01: Nabiki's Deal
by Narsil
Summary: Ranma falls in a different pool, and not only has to deal with being the wrong sex, but the wrong species as well—along with the girl that accidentally summons 'her'. A repost of the beginning of my story originally titled "A Different Curse," rated "M" for high citrus content.
1. The Curse

I have toned down this re-posted story to hopefully fit the M rating, and have posted the uncensored version at Archive of Our Own (AO3).

The original author of this chapter was N F R. It was posted at Anime Addventures for anyone who pleased to add to. The opening excerpt is mostly original, but I've rewritten the rest of the chapter using N F R's plot.

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

Accurate information on **Succubae** and **Incubae** is very rare. They are rarely observed directly, and not only can the effects of their actions be mistaken for normal human deviations, but human sexual problems are blamed on them when they aren't even around.

Succubae are nature spirits, without solid form. Unless the succubus makes an effort, they are invisible to the naked eye. They can pass through solid matter without difficulty, only stopped by living beings, which makes holding one for examination problematical. It is also the likely reason that Merlin, the son of an incubus, was imprisoned within a living oak tree.

Succubae are excellent mimics, able to look and sound like whomever they want. It has been suggested that there aren't two separate genders, incubae and succubae, but one gender that can choose how they wish to appear. Certainly it is possible for them to appear as the opposite gender, but no hard proof as to the number of genders has arisen.

They feed off of the sexual energy given off by others, and need it not only to survive, but to grow in power. It is unclear which abilities are inherent in the most starved succubus, and which are the results of empowerment by feeding.

The feeding does not have to be injurious to the health of the victim, and can, apparently, be performed from a distance; although, whether for reasons of efficiency or personal preference, direct contact is the norm.

Succubae have an influence on dreams in their vicinity, although, once again, we do not know how much of it is under their conscious control. They can appear within dreams and control them, introducing ideas and concepts that were unknown, and likely unimaginable, to the dreamer.

As nature spirits they are, as a group, neither good nor evil, although individuals can be. To religious groups that regard sex as sinful they are, of course, regarded as unremittingly evil hell-spawn requiring extermination. No affiliation with any outer-planar group has been recorded.

Nothing is known about how they reproduce.

Excerpt from _Every Magical Girl's Guide to Sexual Predators_

* * *

Floating half out of the pool of glowing water, Ranma stared down at the twin mounds of flesh now protruding from her bare chest. They couldn't ... couldn't be ... Trembling, her hands lifted (slimmer, more delicate than they had been only moments before) to grasp the two large breasts, and she gasped at the feel of her fingers on soft skin. One hand flashed down between her legs, to find ... nothing. No, not nothing, and she twitched as her hand ran along the gash she found, but it certainly wasn't the appendage she'd been hoping for. She was a girl. He fallen into the pool, and turned into a girl. And that meant that the panda that had knocked him into the pool — using one of his father's favorite moves — was ...

She lifted her eyes from their horrified lock on her breasts and looked around — there was the black-and-white-furred mass of the panda that had kicked him off the bamboo pole and into the pool. Her father.

With a high-pitched shriek, she flashed from the pool toward her target, knocking him backward off his feet. Before he had a chance to recover, one foot smashed up between his legs, and the panda gave out a high-pitched squeal of his own as he curled up where he lay on the ground. Not giving her father a chance to recover, Ranma kept kicking and punching through his feeble resistance from where she floated over him, until she finally realized her father was no longer even trying to protect himself.

Still shaking with anger, she forced herself to back off, fighting for control. After two years of trying to force Ranma into his own perverted mold of manhood, he pulls _this_ stunt! _But he didn't intend this. He's a panda, now — at least I'm still human, he isn't even that!_

Finally getting herself under control, she turned to the Guide, to find him looking down at the unconscious panda. Ranma's own eyes widened at the sight of the Chinese man. Before, he had been dressed in an old Red Army uniform. Perhaps he still was, but now that uniform was completely see-through, almost invisible, the man's less than fit body on full display and seeming to glow. Ranma glanced around, only now registering the sudden bizarre view of glowing pools of water, the bluff apparently formed of brownish, murky water shot through with roots, trees and grass lit up from the inside, the translucent shape of the Guide's hut.

She started to shake again, but this time it wasn't anger. "How do I change back?!" she demanded, and clapped her hands over her mouth in shock at the high, shrill pitch of her voice.

"Only temporary cure," the Guide replied in his broken Japanese. "Hot water, I go get. Wait here."

He ducked into his hut, and emerged a moment later with a steaming kettle. "Young customer, where are you?"

"I'm right in front of you. Can't you see me?" Ranma demanded.

"You is invisible when cursed. You fall in spring of drowned spirit girl. It take holy man to figure out, but he no know what kind. May be just ghost. I pour water, you get under."

The Guide lifted the kettle and tipped it, and Ranma stuck her head under the pouring water, yelping a bit from the steaming heat, and at the way he fell to his knees as he shifted into his human male form. He quickly looked around, and to his relief the world was back to normal ... and he was naked.

As the boy grabbed his pack and pulled out his extra gi, the Guide refilled the kettle and put it on the stove to reheat. "Hot water make you normal, but cold water make you cursed again," he explained as he waited.

"How do I cure this for good?" Ranma asked as he got dressed and tied the raven hair falling past his shoulders back into a ponytail.

"There is no cure. Curses mix, so spring of drowned man no help. When older customer wakes, I take you to Amazon village. Elders may know more about curse. Let me get clothes from pool."

The Guide grabbed a hooked pole leaning against the hut. As he carefully fished in the pool Ranma had fallen into, the raven-haired boy stared down at the unconscious panda, thinking of all the crap his father had put him through over the years. Turning into a panda wasn't enough. His father deserved ... something more.

Looking up when the Guide returned, carefully holding the bucket he'd put the soaked clothes in well away from his body, the teenager said, "You said the curses mix. Is there a pool of drowned woman here?"

/oOo\

Ranma was in hell. Things had been all right for awhile, after his father woke up. He'd been hungry and there'd been little they could do about it, they had had only a little food left in their packs and the Guide hadn't had much more to share, but that was nothing new on this neverending training journey. And he'd enjoyed poking fun at his father as they hiked, pointing out that with his father's cursed form, the outside now reflected the inside (and chortling to himself about the prank he and the Guide had played, and wondering how long it would take the Panda to figure it out).

But then had come the sudden rain shower, and Ranma had gotten another unpleasant surprise, as her pack and clothes dropped through her suddenly intangible body — she hadn't lost her clothes in the pool because of her size change, after all. Sure, that meant that the Panda had to carry both packs, but Ranma was still finding it almost impossible to keep up.

The problem wasn't the speed her father and the Guide were walking, it was that this new smaller, naked, red-haired (and hadn't _that_ been a shock, when she'd caught sight of red locks floating in the corner of her eye), female form didn't have any _traction_! When she tried to walk, her feet would just slip right through the dirt and rocks of the trail they were following, as if it really was the brown-murky water it now looked like. She'd quickly found that she could touch anything that glowed with its own inner light, and was now pulling herself along from branch to branch through the trees lining the path, but she was barely keeping up with even the ambling gait the Panda was keeping. Only the fact she that was also weightless was allowing her to keep up at all.

Wait, weightless. She was weightless! If she didn't have weight, how had she given the Panda his beatdown after he knocked him into the pool? For that matter, how had she gotten to him at all? She certainly hadn't pulled herself from bamboo pole to bamboo pole — could she even touch them? Thinking back, she remembered surfacing in the pool, finding she had breasts, realizing her father was the panda that had knocked him into the pool, looked around until she found him, and ... and she'd flown. She'd flown!

_Okay, Ranma, don't get all excited just yet._ Looking around, the newly-minted nature spirit found that the Panda and the Guide had moved ahead while she'd stopped to think. _Okay, this could be fun..._ Staring at the two translucent backpacks on her father's furred back, she focused, aimed, and _willed_ ... and found herself flashing up the path, barely getting her fists in front of her before they smacked into the Panda's back right through the backpacks.

As Genma jerked at the impact, Ranma rode her momentum to flip up and over her father's head, spinning through the open air over the trail. "I can fly!" she caroled. "I can —" _Shut up, before Pop figures out I'm a girl. He rags on me enough already, since I won't jump in bed with every girl he shoves at me — or shoves me at — no need ta make it worse._

Ignoring her father's shout about his disrespectful son, Ranma started experimenting, trying out how maneuverable she was, how fast, and quickly found it to be a mixed bag. Being able to change directions in the middle of mid-'leap' was great, and so was being able to fly up well above head height, to avoid attacks from the ground. On the other hand, her maximum speed sucked, and her turn radius wasn't as sharp as he was able to do by ping-ponging — and while she ought to be able to ping-pong with trees, it wouldn't work with walls or ceilings, she'd just go right through them.

Oh, and flying into a tree because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going _hurt_ (though oddly enough, she didn't get the star-spangled vision and dizziness that typically came with solid hits to the head). At least she'd had enough self control to deepen her tone, make it sound more like her male voice, when she'd cursed the result.

Her euphoria over her new mode of transport knocked out of her for the moment by the collision, she settled down to exploring her new nature, between the occasional jab at her pop of how nice it was to not have to carry anything for a change (continuing to keep her voice as much like her normal male one as possible). As with the bluff around the pools, she could stare down into the trail, looking through the packed dirt like murky water, follow the twisty path of tree roots until they eventually sank out of sight. Holding her breath and sticking her head and then upper body down into the path, her sight deepened, the distance she was able to see depended on how deep she was, not how deep under the surface she went — good, she could travel underground, and so long as she didn't go so deep she could no longer see the surface she wouldn't get lost. A glorious smile spread across her face as she thought of diving underground, coming up at opponents underneath like a fish breaching the surface of a lake after a fly...

But that would only work for nonliving surfaces, dirt, concrete, stone; what about grass? As the small party passed through a meadow, she looked where long grass bordered the trail. The roots didn't go very deep, but ... nope, when she dove into the trail and flew under the grass she could see the tangle of roots from underneath, glowing the same as all above-ground life did, but not through those roots to the surface. But those roots didn't go very deep ... and yes, when she put a finger against the roots and tried to fly up, her finger pushed the grass up and out of the way, and when she put her eye to the hole she could see a patch of sky. Good — not only did she have a way of getting a look up where she was going, if she really pushed she'd probably be able to burst through.

Flying through the earth back to the path and up again into the open air, she took a deep breath and looked around. _Okay, next step — seeing how well I can handle things, maybe come up with makeshift weapons._ As the three came to the edge of the meadow and were once again surrounded by forest, Ranma examined the trees as they passed. The leaves were glowing, but so were the trunks and branches. Wait, no, only most of the branches, she could barely see several that were obviously dead, bark peeling off in strips, both bark and bare wood as see-through as the backpacks the Panda was carrying. And when she tried to grab them, just as intangible. _Okay, so it isn't just stuff that's never been alive I can't touch, it's stuff that _used_ ta be alive. Wonder how long it takes? _ Pulling a glowing leaf off a passing branch was easy enough, but the glow started to fade immediately and within a few minutes it completely disappeared and dropped through her fingers to drift down to the ground. _Okay, looks like makeshift weapons are out, let's see how I do without anything. Nobody bein' able ta see me will be a big help — I certainly took Pop down easy enough — but what if I run inta somebody that _can_ see me?_

Thinking back to the beatdown she'd given the Panda at the edge of the pools turned out to be useless — she'd been so furious that the first clear memory she had after realizing what the firm, sensitive mounds on her chest meant and finding her father was floating over his unconscious body. But she'd been right about one thing, ping-ponging from tree to tree worked as well with her new body as it did with her old one, just as she'd hoped, even if she had to stick to horizontal bouncing — as she'd learned the hard way when she'd hit a branch not strong enough to stop her momentum on an uptick and found herself headed feet-first for the sun when her hurtling body simply shoved it aside. And the time what she'd thought from a brief glance was a patch of moss turned out to be rough dirt in shade ... she shuddered as she remembered the panic that had flashed through her when she'd found herself so deep underground that the surface above her had vanished in the murky brown of earth. Fortunately, nothing turned her around before she was able to bring herself to a stop and reverse course, but the thought of being lost underground as her air ran out, never to again see the sun or another human being ... _Enough a' that, let's try out some katas._

The redhaired spirit quickly found herself _really_ wishing she could remember how she'd delivered her father's beating, because it quickly became apparent that practically everything she'd learned was worthless. Like walking, it required _traction_ — even the soft arts, throws and redirects, required firm contact with the ground. Sure, dodges still worked fine, better than ever. And she figured that she could use moves that would normally push an attacker's blow out of line to now let the attack push _her_ out of the way. But anything intended to knock an opponent off balance was worthless without something living to brace herself against (though the new angles available with flight opened new possibilities in the right circumstances), and she strongly suspected that her new form wasn't as strong as her normal one.

Then the trio walked out of the forest into the open sunlight of a _very_ wide open area surrounding a village, and a whole new world opened itself up to Ranma's wide eyes.

/\

Genma was in hell. First, there was the discomfort of his new form — or rather, _her_ new form. Turning into a panda wasn't so bad — the massive form would be a damage sponge beyond even his normal human form, it was even stronger, and the lack of human vocal cords wasn't much of a problem thanks to his ability to create signs (a technique learned from a deservedly obscure clan of ninjas, as a soundless method of communication). True, the lack of opposable thumbs was a pit of a hassle, but the real problem with her new body, as she'd learned the first time she'd felt the need to relieve herself, was that it was female! The thought of his humiliation if knowledge of that fact became widespread (especially to No-chan) was enough to make her shudder. At least Ranma hadn't seemed to notice, so she had a chance to keep it a secret.

Second, there was her physical discomfort. Sure, some of the discomfort was coming from the fact that by the time he'd recovered consciousness all the food was gone, and her body was complaining vociferously. And more was because of the aftereffects of the beating his son had given him. But Genma had been hungry before, and bruising — even extensive bruising or worse — were only to be expected in the life of a martial artist. No, _this_ discomfort was because, for the first time since Ranma had grown enough to carry a decent pack, his father was carrying all their gear. This was even worse than it would have normally been, since Ranma had been carrying a disproportionate load for some time, for all sorts of 'reasons' from "it's endurance training" (actually a semi-valid excuse), to "you should be willing to do it for your father," "because that's how it worked out when I packed, now stick the breakfast dishes you cleaned in your pack and let's go," to even "because I said so." Though the effectiveness of that last had been decreasing, which led into the third cause of Genma's current pain.

Things had been going downhill for months. Years, really, if he was honest with himself (something he tried to avoid when possible) — ever since Ranma's disastrous fourteenth birthday, when he'd decided it was time to begin molding his son in the image of his wife's sexual ideal of manhood. For the first time his son had outright refused to follow his lead, but it hadn't been the last as Genma had tried again and again to push Ranma to prove his virility.

While that disobedience hadn't carried over into Ranma's training, the young teenager had been getting increasingly mouthy, disrespectful, and now the beating his newly-invisible son had inflicted on him truly had him worried. Not at the physical effects — as unpleasant as the massive bruising had, he had endured much worse under his perverted master — but because _this_ beating hadn't been from one of the rare times his son had gotten the upper hand in a spar. No, it had been an outraged son inflicting punishment on his father, and _that_ was unacceptable. Only it was going to _have_ to be acceptable, because his son didn't need to beat on him when his father's actions made him angry, he just needed to _leave_, he was almost old enough that he could actually get by alone, and thanks to the curse there would be no way for Genma to find him, or even know immediately that he was gone.

Then Genma stepped out of the forest to find herself at the edge of a wide open space surrounding a village, the trail running between fields green with early crops, men moving along the rows.

"This Nyucheizu, village of Amazons," the Guide said. "If cure possible, they know. But be careful, they no respect men."

The Panda shrugged as they continued toward the village. Whether people (other than his son and wife) respected him had never been one of his major concerns. Except as a martial artist, of course, and there she didn't expect any problems — what backwater village that he had never heard of would have anyone that could match him, whoever ran it?

As they passed from the fields into the village proper, they found it mostly empty except for some children and an occasional (male) minder until they found themselves at the lip of a large hollow at the village's center. The bottom of the hollow held a large log suspended on ropes. On the log was a large, muscular, green-haired woman holding a long-handled spiked mace facing off against a teenaged girl with purple hair holding a chúi in each hand. From the lip of the hollow to the bottom, the sides were filled with women ... and a few men ... cheering on the contestants.

The Panda briefly examined the closest women, reluctantly impressed by what she was seeing. True, none of them could match him, but all the women were sleekly muscled, with the scars of warriors — weapon-users, then. Understandable this far from civilization and dangerous in groups if there wasn't any room to maneuver, but easily defeated once one took their weapons away from them.

Then Genma's nose twitched as a wonderful scent drifted across it, and her stomach rumbled ... food! And very good food, at that. Now where? Glancing around, she saw a table on the edge of the hollow, piled high — fruits, melons, pasta, breads, chicken, beef, venison. Backing up, she slipped around the edge of the cheering crowd to the table and dug in with both paws, the Guide's protests lost in her eagerness along with the fact that her son hadn't joined her — or for that matter, made a sound since entering the village. She wasn't sure of everything she was eating, but especially good was some kind of spiced bread and noodles swimming in a sauce she didn't recognize. But whatever it was, it was the finest noodles she'd ever eaten and not just because she was starving.

Suddenly, a blow smashed into her rump, and Genma whirled around only to take a splash of warm water in the face. As the middle-aged balding man blinked the water away to find the purple-haired girl with the chúi he'd seen earlier on the log glaring at him while the crowd that had been cheering her on (or her opponent) a moment earlier quickly circled them, the Guide said, "She say she think you man, if you with me. Why you eat her victory prize for become champion?"

"Victory feast, huh? Well, there's one fighter you haven't beaten yet, my son. If he wins, there's no problem, is there?"

"She say, what son?" the Guide translated for the glaring girl.

"What son? He's right ... right ... Ranma! Get over here!"

The women looked around expectantly ... nothing.

"Ranma! Stop playing around!"

Nothing.

The crowd started to mutter as the new champion barked out something at the Guide. "She say you lying thief who try get out of punishment. She say she challenge you," the Guide translated.

/\

Xian Pu was in hell. This was supposed to be one of the best days of her life, a memory that she'd cherish through the years and decades. And up to a few minutes ago, it had lived up to every expectation as she'd defeated competitor after competitor — some as young as she was, but others skilled warriors with years of experience. In the end, she'd proven herself the youngest champion in the history of the tribe, with a glowing future of honor and glory stretching out before her, as sure as the sun in the east, and — if she lived — a guaranteed seat on the Council.

And now a few minutes later, she was lying on the ground by the suspended log, her chúi scattered, staring up at the man — the _man_ — that had defeated her. An ugly one, at that: old, balding, strong (as she'd just discovered) but portly. And one that was _smirking_ at her!

The man lightly leaped down from the log (surprisingly so, for his bulk). #So, that takes care of that!# he boasted in the Japanese she'd learned from her great-grandmother, sounding loud in the total silence that had slammed down over the crowd at her defeat. Puffing out his chest, he glanced up at the table, loaded to the point that even his heroic efforts earlier hadn't measurably reduced the food she had been supposed to graciously share with the beaten competitors. #Would you like some of _my_ food?#

With a sigh, the teenager pulled her aching body upright. _Why couldn't he at least have been young and handsome?_ she thought bitterly. Straightening her slumping shoulders, she smoothed out her expression and stepped forward to complete the ruin her offended pride had made of her life. A hand on each cheek, she stood on tiptoes to kiss the stranger on the lips. "You I love," she murmured, finishing the ritual, then stepped back.

The silence held for a moment longer, then a shriek of outrage came from the front of the audience, the voice of her childhood friend turned constant annoyance. "He must die!" Mu Tse shouted. Her new husband turned, and dropped as swords and knives _thunked_ into the suspended log in a line across where the older man had been standing a split second before. The stranger rolled under the log to the other side, narrowly escaping a handful of spears imbedding themselves where he had dropped. He rolled to his feet, grabbed the backpacks that he had left there when he'd mounted the log, and bounded through the wary and still-stunned crowd and was gone, yelling again for Ranma as he went. Perhaps there really was a boy?

_Whether there is or not, he isn't here now, and it looks like I have a Husband Hunt to 'organize',_ she thought, thinking of the time to come she would spend nodding agreement to the elders' 'suggestions'. She tried to ignore the possible might-have-beens flashing through her mind as relief and disappointment warred within her. Things would have gone badly for Mu Tse if he'd succeeded in killing her new husband — much worse than she would wish for her old friend, however annoying he'd gotten since hitting puberty — but it would have simplified her suddenly complicated future enormously, and she had a great deal of work to get to, to repair her blunder, and she'd have to put it all on hold until she returned with her errant mate.

/\

Ranma was in heaven. In spite of his determination not to become a lying, cheating, thieving and — most important in this case — wenching waste of space like his father, Ranma was a normal boy, with all the teenage hormones that implied. Only at the moment _she_ was a very _ab_normal girl. He hadn't really considered what her inability to see more than the faintest hint of clothing would mean when she got back to civilization, but now the reality was staring her in the face as she found herself floating over a crowd of women. They were cheering on a duel taking place on a suspended log, but for once Ranma wasn't interested in the fighting. She had other things on her mind, like more naked flesh than she'd ever seen in her life, all well-toned and fit, almost all female, and all unashamedly on display because none of the women knew they were naked, and try as she might she could not bring herself to look away.

Ranma had to keep herself from laughing as she remembered the locker room boasting that had gone on at the all-boys school he'd attended for a few months not too long ago, the loving details the other boys had dwelt on. Now that the reality was spread before her, the liars' complete lack of imagination was clear to see — breasts that were barely there; breasts high, round and firm; breasts so massive they must be a hindrance in a fight, interfering with balance and freedom of movement, and needing serious support from the foggy hints of clothing she could see. Funny how the only size the boys had mentioned were large ones, and they didn't mention the different shapes at all. He had thought at the time they were making everything up, and now she was sure of it.

The invisible redhaired girl drifted along above the audience, gazing at the view laid out before her, until she finally shook herself free of her dazed appreciation of the visual feast, tearing her eyes away. _Enough, Ranma, time ta prove ya aren't a pervert like yer pop or the guys at school,_ she thought. _Ya may not be able ta keep from seein' women naked, but that doesn't mean ya have ta dishonor them by takin' advantage of it._ She glanced around at the area above the crowd. They were in a hollow, and just about every woman in the village had to be here, so if she got up into the village proper she'd be away from the nearly irresistible temptation the crowd couldn't help but offer her.

Flying up past the rim of the hollow, the nude girl sighed in relief as she found herself with not a naked girl in sight — almost. On the other side of a barely-visible house, there was a pair of girls, doing ... something, Ranma wasn't sure what. It looked like they were kissing, but that couldn't be it, right? Did girls do that with each other? Curious, she flew up over the house for a better look (uncomfortable with flying through someone else's private home, however easy it would have been and even if she could see not only into but through every nook and cranny and with no one else inside the house, anyway). The girls _were_ kissing! And more than that — Ranma could see the hazy outlines of tunics covering everything important, but that wasn't stopping the girls' hands from roaming over each other's bodies.

Blushing beet red, the invisible girl finally forced herself to turn away, berating herself for staring — this was even worse than what she'd been doing at the fight! But while she was able to stop watching, she couldn't seem to pull herself away. There was something about what the girls were doing that made her feel ... she wasn't sure what. Comfortable? Warm? And not from the blush still burning her cheeks. It felt like soft sunlight on her naked skin, and her blush deepened even more at the gentle caress. What was happening?

"Ranma!" The redhead was jolted from her introspection at the sound of her father's voice coming from within the hollow. "Ranma!" She rolled her eyes at the sound of panic in the tone of the shouts — they were getting run out of yet _another_ village. And her father had been in the village less than half an hour, that actually might be a record. With a sigh, she flew upwards, looked around ... and there was Genma, human again, racing out of the village at a dead run, both packs bouncing on his pack. She swept down after him at her best speed. It was nowhere close enough to catch up, or even keep up, but she knew her father. She'd be able to find him again, knowing which way he was running.


	2. First Summoning

The original form of this chapter was written by Bastet's Chosen and Doronron and posted at Anime Addventures for anyone who pleased to add to.

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

Popular culture is filled with stories as to what happens when a careless summoner flubs her invocation. Contrary to popular belief, the nearest Prince of Hell does not use the open-ended summoning as an excuse to enter the world and bring forth destruction. Unfortunately, the summoner usually ends up dead anyway.

While a summoner that mispronounces a name may well end up with some other demon or nature spirit with the name given, most incorrectly performed summonings will instead call the supernatural creature that is spiritually closest to the summoner. While for some luck people this may be an imp or a dryad, most are not so lucky.

Any creature under contractual obligation to the summoner has the strongest ties, the exact strength varying by contract. As many summoners prefer to banish demons before paying them, such a summoning is usually fatal. The next strongest tie is that of death. A demon that killed an ancestor or fellow apprentice of the summoner's master would have such a bond. Other bonds likely exist, but those who found the bodies were unable to ascertain the relation between the deceased and the demon that killed them.

As one cannot know what promises have been made on one's behalf by parents, distant ancestors, or masters, it is impossible to anticipate what will respond to an open summoning. The only way to be absolutely certain is to marry, or promise to marry a spiritual creature, binding it closer to yourself than any other could become. While this course of action does reduce the danger of open summonings, it is not undertaken lightly. Marriage or promises of marriage, once invoked by magical act, are difficult to break. It is almost as if there were some ultimate spiritual force that seeks their enforcement.

From _How to Survive Your First Year as a Summoner_

* * *

Blackmail was so easy now. Since Nabiki began using demons to spy for her, the money had come rolling in. Originally she had used nature spirits, but they often wanted to be paid in labor — cleaning parks, mulching shrubs, etc. — while the imps she summoned only insisted she actually use the information to blackmail people. Apparently evil was its own reward.

Nabiki had no intention of losing her soul to demons; she was smart. She only summoned imps, and only to observe targets. Spirit summoning played no part in enforcement. Nabiki had also found ways of reducing the risks of the summoning itself. Magic circles still had to be drawn in chalk dust, but Nabiki glued those circles to sheets of paper, eliminating any chance that a stray step or errant wind could destroy its protection. Nabiki didn't take chances.

It was a pity that she could not have anticipated that a fragment of a cinder block her young sister destroyed acquired enough energy to fly out of the dojo, through the kitchen window (where she'd decided to perform the summoning to enjoy the scent of the flowers just outside, while her sister was shopping), and strike her on the face. It was even more unfortunate that Nabiki had been in the middle of summoning an imp, and the sudden blow made her pause mid-syllable. It was the utmost bad luck that the fragment rebounded off Nabiki's face and through the paper she'd draw her circle on, destroying one of the myriad lines that protected her from whatever appeared inside.

Staring at the tiny shard that most likely had killed her, Nabiki vowed that she would somehow take Akane with her.

At this point Nabiki's bad luck ran out. Instead of a hideous demon out to devour her body and drag her soul off to hell, a busty redheaded nature spirit appeared. Things were looking up immeasurable, she might only end up dead.

"What happened? Where the hell is this?" the redhead asked, settling into a ready stance familiar to anyone that had practiced martial arts — which looked a bit odd, considering she was bobbing in the air.

"Who are you?" Nabiki asked. She doubted the nature spirit would give her true name, but if she was lucky it would help her to research exactly how this spirit was connected to her. If she was unlucky, she'd recognize the name right off, just before she was punished for speaking to one of the beings whose names she knew right off.

"Don't freak out," the spirit said, "I'm not a ghost or anything like that."

"Of course not," Nabiki said. This was good; the spirit appeared to be friendly towards humans. "You're a nature spirit, and from your human shape, probably represent an emotion or other thing associated with man."

"Ah! You can see me?" the spirit yelled. "I'm naked!" The spirit moved to cover her groin

"Of course you're naked," Nabiki said with a touch of exasperation, "you're a nature spirit." This was wonderful! The spirit didn't even know about summoners if she thought Nabiki shouldn't be able to see her. Nabiki would just claim ignorance of how the spirit got there and hopefully get out of all this scot free.

"No I'm not!" the spirit protested. "I mean, I am, but not really. Pop threw me into a stupid cursed pool, and now I turn into this when splashed with cold water. I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome school of martial arts, and if you get me some hot water, I can turn back."

This was just too rich. The summoning circle had been placed in the middle of the room, allowing Nabiki to maneuver if she needed. Now she was circling her new acquisition. The nature spirit, Ranma, it called itself, turned with her, trying to keep Nabiki in sight. Nabiki smirked as the spirit continued to maintain her useless stance even as she bobbed around in a circle.

"Well?" the nature spirit asked, exasperated.

Nabiki hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter and placed her chin in her hand. Her smirk grew, just a little.

"So, you're a normal human?"

"That's what I've been telling you!"

"Then how do you explain my summoning you? This only works on demons and spirits, you know."

The busty redhead nervously looked down at the circle. "No. That's not possible! I'm human!" she blubbered. She looked up to Nabiki with pleading eyes. "Get me hot water. I'll prove it to you! I can't be some female ghost permanently!"

"You big baby!" Nabiki hopped down and turned to open a cabinet for a glass. "Fine! I'll get you your glass of water."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank — OWW!" Nabiki spun in time to see the redhead suck on her fingers.

"You tried to leave the circle, didn't you?"

"Umm ... yes?"

"How do we know if a glass of water will work?" Nabiki leaned against the counter.

"Just get it!" Ranma yelled.

Nabiki shrugged, "Think about it. I was able to summon you. You can't pass through the barriers of the circle without my permission. Only humans can. If you're really cursed as you say you are, just about anything could happen if I splash you with hot water." Hook ...

"Get me the water, please!" Ranma begged.

Nabiki locked eyes with the redhead. "Are you really sure you want to risk it?" Line ...

"Yes!"

"Okay, then. First we have to make a deal." And Sinker ...

"What!?" Ranma howled?

"How do I know you're not lying? How do I know you're not some foul creature from beyond looking for a light snack? Before I help you, you will promise me—"

"Anything!" Ranma cried.

"I wasn't finished yet!" snapped Nabiki, "Will you promise that you will do as I ask and never let any harm come to me, by your hand or any other's?"

"Yes! Just make me be human again! Besides, it's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak."

Nabiki smiled as sweetly as she could, causing a cold shiver to run up the redhead's spine. "I'll get you your water," Nabiki said.

Did it suddenly just get a little cold in here? A quick check of the nature spirit's breasts let Nabiki know the redhead was most certainly feeling it, too. To hide her rising blush, Nabiki spun on her heels, and opened the cabinet again to grab a glass, then filled it with hot water from the tap. If that didn't prove hot enough, well, she'd have to boil some water. She'd fulfill her part of the contract for sure, then — water just didn't get hotter than that. "Here you are," Nabiki said. Since the rip in the circle might be repaired, Nabiki didn't want to drench it beyond saving. She reached inside, grabbed Ranma's hand, and pulled the spirit out through the hole her sister had inadvertently made in her protection.

"Hey! You mean I could have gotten out at any time?" Ranma demanded, hands on her hips.

"Looks like it," Nabiki agreed sweetly, keeping her eyes fixed on the spirit's face. Well, mostly.

"Great," Ranma grumbled, "so pour it."

Nabiki tipped the glass over the nature spirit's head, and suddenly she was the only occupant of the room.

"How did she manage that?" Nabiki asked herself. Theoretically, since she hadn't ordered Ranma to remain there, the spirit could leave whenever she wanted to. Practically, Nabiki had never heard of a spirit teleporting like that. Well, there was a simple solution to this. Nabiki fixed the tear in her summoning circle and set to work.

Three tries later, she gave up. This was very frustrating; she was unable to compel Ranma's presence. That meant that 'Ranma' couldn't be the spirit's true name. Spirits normally gave out use names, but this one had been so naïve that Nabiki was a little surprised she'd used even that much caution. More ominously, it had to mean that their contract was not in effect. A spirit summons implied an order; while a spirit summoned by a use name could choose to decline the invitation, it still knew it was being summoned and by whom. If Ranma was under contract and got her summons, then she should have gone along with it.

What could have voided the contract? Nabiki brought the hot water and, damn! The spirit insisted on Nabiki making her human. Worrisomely, Nabiki couldn't recall the exact wording the spirit had used. There were at least two possible flaws in the contract. It might be impossible for Nabiki to turn Ranma human, thus preventing the contract from forming in the first place. Alternately, Ranma's wording might have implied that the contract only began once she was human, and Ranma was under no obligation to allow Nabiki to perform that transformation, assuming she could find out how. That was subtle, very subtle of the spirit. Perhaps it was best she got away after all. A tricky spirit could find ways around even the best written contracts, and Nabiki really didn't need to deal with that sort of creature.

* * *

The duration clause is one of the more controversial parts of summoning contracts. Some feel one should never be added, that spirits should be forced to return to their homes when the summoning ends. This provides safety in case of a poorly worded contract; keeps the rest of the world safe should a spirit slay their summoner, and gives the spirit less time to think of ways to subvert the contract it is bound by. Proponents of the clause note that many tasks take more time than even the best summonings force a spirit to remain. Two different camps offer two different answers to the other's objections. The first line of thought is that those concerns are far less important when summoning nature spirits and doing a little work is a fair price not to worry about such things. The other camp says that if they die, they don't really care about what happens to the rest of the world.

When used, a duration clause changes the nature of a spirit's stay within our realm (or that part of the realm, for nature spirits). The spirit's true location ceases to be where it was summoned from and becomes the place it was summoned to. Essentially, the spirit can no longer be considered summoned. To compensate for this, most duration clauses include conditions (sometime several) under which the spirit must return to where it was summoned from, often in the form of time limits, completion of a task, or a command by the summoner. Even without these conditions, a dismissal ritual will send the spirit back. Note that unlike demons, many nature spirits consider this a favor, as traveling back to their preferred location under their own power could take some time.

From _Common Spiritual Contracts_

* * *

Nabiki frowned. She'd heard rumors about this sort of thing, but never really expected it to happen to her. The redheaded nature spirit had decided to 'play' with her. At first, Nabiki just thought it was bad luck. A book falling onto the summoning circle at the wrong time, startling her in mid-chant. Saliva getting into her lungs, making her cough at the wrong time. It could have been luck. A number of her summonings went off without a hitch. Only occasionally did Ranma appear, walk out of the inevitable break in Nabiki's protections, and ask for hot water. Nabiki didn't like that she tended to get flustered those times, but mistakes in these rituals were the sort of things that made you nervous — and for good reason. She didn't want to find out what Ranma could do when upset, and as the water seemed to dismiss the spirit, Nabiki had complied each time.

Her second rationalization had been carelessness. Let's face it, when the consequences of getting a ritual wrong were no longer a painful death but instead a cute redhead with a thing for hot water, you weren't quite as careful about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. However, no matter how careful she was, Nabiki kept on making mistakes. It had to be Ranma teasing her.

Well, she'd see about that. Nabiki was prepared this time. Instead of the normal paper base, Nabiki had started this circle with a plywood platform. Two different protective circles had been carved into it, filled with the appropriate powders, then sealed with shellac. This spate of problems went a long way to show Nabiki why stone floors with protective circles etched into them and filled with metal was considered the optimum setup. Still, this was the best Nabiki could manage, and to use it she'd have to take over the dojo.

Nabiki was tired of this. She would start using the smaller, inner circle from now on. If Ranma ended up appearing, hopefully the outer circle would still hold the redhead. Nabiki would offer a bribe to be left alone and, after mulching a park or something like that, would hopefully be back in top form.

/\

Ranma had gotten pretty inured to his curse. Being invisible was great for surprise, as was attacking through solid objects. Weapons were really useless against him as a ghost. The temperature didn't bother him, and he didn't get hungry, which was good, because his fat slob of a father figured out that splashing him was a good way to keep him from getting at the food. Sure, there were problems. He still slipped through the floor of buildings at times, and even diligent practice hadn't raised his flying speed. Seeing everyone pretty much naked sucked, but he'd gotten used to it. Even turning into a girl wasn't so bad since nobody could see him.

Well, there was that one girl, but she was nice. Nabiki didn't hit him or yell at him, even though he was always naked and could see her naked. She always stopped whatever it was she was doing and got him hot water. Ranma had gotten to like their little visits, even if he had no idea what caused them. Nabiki was a lot nicer to look at than his Pop and the Guide. Also, seeing Nabiki meant he'd get hot water, something his father rarely could find in the middle of the Chinese wilderness, except at the end of the day, and there were serious advantages to sleeping as a ghost, not the least of which was his father having to _find_ him to start training each morning.

So, when Ranma felt that little tug that meant she'd be visiting Nabiki again, she'd say something like "See if I talk to you again, Old Man." Pop never figured out that Ranma was sometimes gone; Ranma started throwing in comments like that to explain her sudden silences. Not that he thought the idiot would figure it out; the dumbass still hadn't realized why his panda body insisted on squatting to take a leak.

When the world faded in around her again, Ranma didn't see the bedroom she expected. Instead, she was inside a dojo, floating over a big piece of wood with a crack in it. Nabiki was stomping on some bugs, muttering under her breath. "Hi again," Ranma said cheerfully. She could see a bunch of the bugs inside the wood. "Want some help?"

"No," Nabiki sighed, "just a little frustrated with the termites." The girl straightened her shoulders, which did interesting things to her breasts, then continued. "Look, Ranma, this has been happening a lot. Each time it does, you ask for hot water, then leave. What else is it that you want from me?"

Ranma blinked. What did she mean? Of course she just wanted hot water; she'd never asked for anything else. Was she asking why it was happening? No, she asked about what she wanted since she came over so much...

Of course! Nabiki wanted to know if she was just using her for the water, like her stupid father would do. She didn't mean what did she want like what could she get for her, she meant what did she want between them! "I want to be friends," Ranma replied.

The answer was nothing like Nabiki expected. Could that have been it? Ranma hadn't been taunting her, but trying to show that, even when she held every advantage, she wasn't hostile? Had Ranma been, well, courting her? Courting her friendship, of course. It made a certain amount of sense. Having a spirit as a friend would be extremely helpful. Nabiki wouldn't have to worry about proper contracts at all when dealing with Ranma. On the other hand, betraying that friendship could have severe consequences. Nabiki didn't have friends, not since they all turned on her in middle school. People turned on you or let you down. Still, Ranma wouldn't think Nabiki was strange, or a freak, and there was no crowd of other girls to poison Ranma's friendliness. Besides, they could always invoke a contract to ensure they'd remain friends...

"I'd like that," Nabiki answered.

/\

Well, what did you talk about with a spirit you'd just agreed to befriend? For that matter, what did you talk about with anyone you'd just resolved to befriend? Small talk would work until Nabiki could think up something better to talk about. Let's see, 'nice breasts you've got there; your nipples crinkle so attractively' probably won't go over well. Ranma wasn't from around here, so the weather was out. How about ...

"I'll show you around the house," Nabiki offered, standing on one of the inner circle's lines. Ranma nodded and floated through the gap in the barrier. "This is our dojo. Dad doesn't really keep up with his training anymore, so Akane's the only one who really uses it. Normally I summon spirits in my room, but I needed the extra space for this one."

"Who's Akane?" Ranma asked.

"She's my younger sister," Nabiki replied briefly. She'd rather not talk about Akane with a new friend.

"What's it like?" Ranma asked. "I don't got any sisters or brothers. At least, none I know about."

"Be glad," Nabiki answered. Fine, they'd talk about Akane. Everyone wanted to talk about Akane. Well, maybe Ranma was more curious what a sibling was like than Akane herself. "Akane's my younger sister and the baby of the family; everything she wants, she gets. When Mom died, Dad focused on Akane. We're pretty well off, so he stopped working and just trained her all the time. Of course, with only investments bringing in money, sacrifices had to be made. So I ended up wearing hand-me-downs and Kasumi started making her own clothes. Akane still got new clothes, of course. When my birthday came around, I got a cake for a present. Akane got whatever toys she wanted for her birthday, of course. Hell, she got whatever toy she wanted when it wasn't her birthday.

"She always has to be right. When we were little, she'd run to Daddy and he'd always take her side, just because she's younger. When she got good at martial arts, Akane started threatening to hit me if she didn't like what I was saying or if I proved her wrong. She's good looking and everyone likes her and she expects everything to just fall into her lap. And it usually does, courtesy of Dad or one of her admirers."

"I think I know the type," Ranma said. "Always focused on themselves and what they can get."

"Not really," Nabiki admitted. Her sister wasn't some sort of paradigm of selfishness, after all. "She can be nice to people; it's just that she thinks she's the center of the universe and entitled to everything." Wait, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense. "It's hard to explain," Nabiki admitted.

"Okay," Ranma cheerfully agreed. "I know you're wrong about at least one thing," she added.

"What?" Nabiki asked.

"Well," Ranma responded, "people aren't doing stuff for her 'cause she's pretty, because there's no way she's better looking than you."

Ranma smiled. There, that cheered Nabiki up; girls always liked being told they're pretty. Besides, Nabiki was good looking in a way that would have really made Ranma nervous before she got used to seeing everyone nude.

It took a few moments for Nabiki to speak again. "Well, you haven't seen my sister yet," she eventually said.

Ranma shrugged; what did that have to do with anything?

"I'll show you around the rest of the house," Nabiki continued. It was only when she stepped on another line that Ranma realized they were inside a big magic circle. Nabiki obviously was worried that whatever she was doing might hurt others, so she put the second circle in. That was really nice of her; she just hoped that her new friend didn't have to do dangerous stuff like that a lot.

"Now, I can't keep talking to you if someone's in the room," Nabiki warned, "so you'll just have to wait for me to talk about it once we're alone again." Nabiki showed him the yard, main room, and the ofuro before they encountered her older sister in the kitchen. Nabiki grabbed an apple, then led Ranma upstairs to her room. "That was Kasumi, my older sister," Nabiki explained, sitting on the western style bed.

"So she has to put up with Akane, too," Ranma joked.

"Yeah," Nabiki replied, "but I don't think she minds it. Kasumi took over all the cleaning and cooking after Mom died."

There was the death of her mother, again. Ranma didn't want to push on a sensitive subject. Sure, his mom was gone, too, but that happen before he could remember and if she told Nabiki that, she might think she was saying she should be grateful for the time they had together. Which she should, of course, but getting lectured sucked and she wasn't going to do that to her new friend. "So Kasumi took over being mom?" she asked.

"Pretty much," Nabiki confirmed. "I used to get so angry at her because she could make anyone do whatever she wanted, even me. Then one day, I figured out that Kasumi doesn't make you do anything. She just assumes you're going to do it, and most people won't disagree with her. Then, if you argue with Kasumi, she talks about how you've disappointed her and puts you in the wrong. I've figured out that you should just not do whatever Kasumi suggests then zone out on the guilt lecture you get afterwards."

"That never worked for me," Ranma muttered. His father would just attack as soon as Ranma became inattentive.

"Well, I bet your sensei is willing to pound on you," Nabiki offered. "Kasumi just wrings her hands ineffectually. So what about you?" She'd been doing most of the talking, after all. What was Ranma's life like? What did she like, what did she hate, what was her favorite color?

"Well," Ranma responded, "I've been wandering around the world with my Pop for as long as I can remember. We go to dojos and training grounds, learning the Art. That's about it, really. Pops is lazy and selfish, but he knows his martial arts."

Well, that was pretty uninformative. It didn't even let Nabiki know something new about the origins of spirits! Ranma father could be an actual father, an asexual parent that budded Ranma, or even just an unrelated spirit that was a mentor to Ranma like a father. The rest of the conversation was about various places Ranma had visited. The redhead had been all over Japan, and Nabiki enjoyed hearing about some of the out of the way training grounds she'd been to. Eventually, Ranma asked for hot water, and after Nabiki pointed out she could use the furo, the spirit left. Actually, it was a pretty good thing that hot water dismissed Ranma, even if the girl thought of it as a curse. Nabiki had used the strongest summoning spell she knew, one that she didn't have a dismissal ritual worked out for. Ranma would have been stuck with Nabiki for a week without that little quirk.

/oOo\

Nabiki was eating lunch with her family when Ranma abruptly returned. One second Nabiki was reaching for the tempura, the next moment Ranma was in the middle of the table and Nabiki's hand was full of the spirit's breast. Nabiki froze, unsure of what was going on. Ranma managed to swallow whatever response had almost been startled out of her, and shot up to the ceiling.

"... so Yuka needs to do better on the next test or her mom will ground her," Akane continued, unaware of the family's sudden visitor, "and I promised to help her study. She _needs_ me to help her. Can't I stay over for dinner?"

"I though you were mad at Yuka," Nabiki commented, reaching again for the tempura now that Ranma was out of the way.

"That was about clothes," Akane explained. "This is _important_."

"I suppose it's okay," Soun said. "Just be back by ten."

Nabiki tuned out her father as he went on about an old friend and how they helped each other. She quickly finished the meal, keeping an eye on Ranma out of the corner of her eye as the redhead circled around the youngest sister. Of course Ranma wanted to look at Akane. Nabiki rose and walked back to her room, smiling to herself when Ranma followed. Nabiki was about to ask the spirit what she was doing here, when Ranma spoke.

"She's not better looking, you know."

"What?" Nabiki asked.

"Your sister," Ranma replied. "You're better looking than her. I mean, you've got bigger boobs and a nicer face and she's concentrated so much on strength training that her muscles are kinda bulky, not nice and toned like yours. Besides, I like short hair."

Nabiki blinked. She hadn't expected Ranma to suddenly come back and compliment her looks, especially not with such a blunt compliment. Well, seeing through everyone's clothes probably made one very comfortable with people's bodies. She smiled suddenly, that meant that Ranma's interest in Akane wasn't admiration; Ranma had been critiquing her sister!

"Well, I doubt you came here to explain how I'm the best looking of my family," Nabiki said warmly.

"Nah," Ranma answered, "I just noticed it when I remembered what you said before while I was waiting for you to finish. I don't know why I'm here."

"You don't know?" Nabiki asked, worried. Unexplained supernatural events rarely had positive outcomes, and Nabiki had already beat the odds once with Ranma's first appearance.

"Nope," Ranma replied, far too calm. "I just got splashed with cold water again, my curse activated like normal, and suddenly I was pulled here."

"And you've never been summoned when uncursed?" Nabiki asked.

"Nope." Nabiki started to have an idea of what might be going on, but it would be pretty fantastic.

"If you don't mind answering, what kind of spirit are you?" Nabiki asked.

"I don't know; I haven't been one very long," Ranma answered. Well, that confirmed it. Ranma was a young nature spirit, probably the youngest she'd ever summoned — they always knew _what_ they were, at least. Young spirits must have a natural immunity to summoning, and either a real curse, or natural maturation, removed the redhead's immunity when exposed to cold water.

"I think I know what happened," Nabiki said, talking aloud as she reasoned. "When you're not cursed, you're immune to summons; when you're splashed, you're not. Before, I used short-term summons, so they wore out before you got splashed again. But I used a week-long ritual last time, so when your immunity is removed again you return to my side."

"So I'll come back here whenever I get wet this week?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Nabiki admitted weakly.

"Cool!" Ranma's exclamation was not what Nabiki expected. "Whenever Pop gets all windbaggy I can say 'bye old man, I'm visiting someone interesting'."

"I'm glad you don't mind my little mistake," Nabiki said.

"Mind? If this week is nice, I might ask you to do it again."

/oOo\

"Forget it Old Man," Ranma said, upending a glass of water over his head. He immediately changed genders and the world changed around her. Ranma wasn't the one who agreed to fix that furnace, and she wasn't going to let the Old Man get her to do it.

When the world cleared around her, she was in a classroom. Some teacher was droning on in front of the class, and Nabiki was taking notes. When she didn't immediately notice Ranma's presence, she floated in front of the girl. Nabiki paused in her note taking for a second, then continued on, shooting Ranma a glance that she was pretty sure meant something. What it meant, Ranma had no idea.

Ranma had no interest in math, but she floated up near the ceiling, hoping the class would end soon. No such luck. She then investigated the other classrooms, but, unsurprisingly, all the teachers at the school were boring, too. Ranma returned to Nabiki's class. At first, she just made bunny-ears behind the teacher's head. It got no response from Nabiki. Ranma then floated behind the teacher, pretending to speak. Ranma wasn't sure, but Nabiki might have smiled. That kept Ranma amused for a couple minutes, but she got bored again. She didn't come here for school; even fixing that furnace would have been better than school. Ranma wanted to talk with Nabiki, and she was barely reacting to Ranma. Well, she could change that.

Ranma floated near Nabiki's foot. She reached through the floor and slippers and began to tickle the bottom of Nabiki's feet. For half a minute, Ranma thought that Nabiki wasn't even ticklish, but then the girl twitched a little. That was all the encouragement Ranma needed. She began to tickle Nabiki all over her body, but Nabiki clamped her arms to her sides and the soles of her feet to each other, not giving Ranma easy targets. Well, Ranma would show her!

/\

Nabiki was surprised to see Ranma in class, and tried to warn the redhead not to cause a scene. Things had been fine, amusing even, when Ranma was exploring or mocking the teacher, but now the nature spirit was out of control! Nabiki did her best not to laugh at Ranma's assault, and managed to deny her the easy tickle spots just in time. Once Nabiki really got started, she became ticklish all over her body; when they were very young, Kasumi had taken merciless advantage of this weakness.

Then Ranma started tickling the spot where her butt met her leg. Another hand started in on Nabiki's ribs. It wasn't long before Nabiki began twitching, then finally convulsing. It was all she could do to keep the laughter in check. Nabiki's wiggling displaced Ranma's hands, but that just made things worse. Ranma was lightly stroking her crotch and breasts, and it felt nice but she was a girl and it was still _tickling_ which was horrible and if Ranma didn't stop she was going to pee in front of all her classmates...

As the school nurse rushed in, Ranma finally let up. Nabiki managed to regain control of herself as the nurse helped her to her feet. As they walked to the infirmary Nabiki explained that she had never suffered fits before. Ranma trailed along, looking contrite. Eventually the nurse let Nabiki go after a promise to consult their doctor about epilepsy. Nabiki quickly made her way to the roof.

"Never do that again!" Nabiki shouted as so as the door closed behind them

"Sorry," Ranma muttered.

"Don't be sorry; don't do it again."

"I was bored."

"So you decided I needed to look like a medical emergency?"

"I was just teasing."

"Look," Nabiki said with a sigh. "If we're going to be friends, that means we don't screw with each other, got it?"

"I ..." Ranma paused a moment, then continued, "I didn't think it would be so bad. I got kinda carried away." Nabiki stared at the spirit. She was looking at the ground, even twisting her foot nervously. Well, if Nabiki was right, Ranma wasn't especially old.

"Fine," Nabiki relented. "I've got the rest of the day off, what do you want to do?"

/oOo\

When night caught the Saotomes, they were between towns. As the weather looked clear, they ate some dinner, made camp, and went to sleep. A few hours later, a brief misting of rain fell. It wasn't much moisture, but it was enough to activate their curses. Ranma disappeared from the Chinese countryside and reappeared, still asleep, next to Nabiki. In her bed.

Neither girl awoke. Soon, without the grass under her, Ranma began to sink through the bed. Subconsciously she reached out and wrapped herself around the only thing she could use to keep from sinking further: Nabiki.

* * *

Another big chapter, and one that finishes up almost all the material that wasn't mine to begin with. This one did have some modifications beyond the usual spelling/grammar, because when Bastet's Chosen wrote the episode for Ranma's first summoning he didn't consult a blueprint—Nabiki's bedroom is not only on the second floor, it's on the opposite side of the house from the dojo. Makes it a bit tough for Akane's brick-breaking in the dojo to send a shard through her window, so I shifted the action to the kitchen. I also eliminated a reference to Shampoo attacking Ranma and Genma during their flight from China, since later I have the two escape without seeing another Amazon until Nerima.


	3. First Night

This chapter containes the last material written by someone else, a good bit of the middle of the conversation with Kasumi written by Nekomata-sensei. I've condensed it, where Nabiki was basically recapping the story to date. From here on out, all the writing's mine.

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

It is well known in the Tendo household that Nabiki is not a morning person, but what is less well known is the reason why. While her current blackmail activities were very lucrative, the blackmail for money had only become a regular practice when she had shifted from using nature spirits to imps that demanded the material they gathered be used — before then she had mainly used the information collected as ammunition to punish those 'friends' that had betrayed her, then to protect herself from their anger, and their friends' anger, and then possible attacks from acquaintances... Not that the blackmail bothered her much, by that time she had a very jaundiced view of humanity and figured they deserved it.

At any rate, Nabiki had been getting increasingly paranoid over time and as a result was a very light sleeper. So when Ranma's arms circled her, Nabiki was instantly awake, out of bed, and plastered against the wall with her hand on the light switch staring as ... a naked, sleeping redhead was sinking into her bed!? But there wasn't anything living beneath her room to stop her... Just as suddenly Nabiki found herself under her bed with a deathgrip around Ranma's upper left arm just in time to keep her from sinking completely through the floor. She wriggled backwards until they were both out from underneath her bed, got up on her knees and _yanked_ — and promptly learned one of the first lessons of any astronaut, the difference between weight and mass, as Ranma came flying out of the floor and knocked her onto her back.

Ranma came awake to find herself face to breasts with her new friend and promptly flew through the ceiling in panic, where she paused over the roof, gasping in panic. _What the heck!? It must have rained where Pop an' me camped. Great, now Nabiki's gonna think I'm a total pervert. Well, might as well face the music, maybe if I grovel enough I'll keep the only friend I got._ She flew back down through the roof, her face as red as her hair and already stammering out an apology, only to gape at the sight of Nabiki practically rolling on the floor with laughter. "Um, Nabiki? What's so funny?"

Nabiki looked up at the naked redhead floating just under her ceiling and her laughter died as she saw the mingled confusion and fear on Ranma's face. "Ranma, what's wrong?"

"You don't think I'm a pervert? I know I don't understand girls much, but don't you usually get mad when someone grabs onto your chest? Pop certainly got a real beatdown the last time he did that by mistake." Ranma scratched the back of her head and stared at her feet floating in the air. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Sorry for what? You were asleep when you arrived, and I was the one that yanked you on top of me."

Ranma stared at Nabiki in shock. _She isn't going to blame me for it? But I_ always _get blamed for whatever goes wrong, that's how the world works!_ She felt tears welling up in her eyes and turned away from Nabiki as she curled into a ball.

Nabiki stared at the crying redhead. What was the problem now!? And what did she do about it? It wasn't like she had much (or any) practice at comforting friends, human or otherwise. She took a deep breath, calming the panic she felt rising in her chest and thought back to years ago and the last time she'd cried in front of family and remembered how Kasumi had responded. She wasn't Kasumi, but still ... Well, the first thing was to get Ranma down from the ceiling. "Ranma, come down here." Ranma just shook her head and curled up tighter, so Nabiki walked over and jumped up, grabbed a convenient foot, and yanked down. This time she was ready, and only staggered a bit as Ranma smacked into her arms. She walked over to her bed and sat with Ranma in her lap and just held her in her arms as the crying settled down to sniffles. "All right, Ranma, what were all the tears for?"

Ranma uncurled a bit and laid her head on Nabiki's shoulder as she wiped at her eyes. Inside her a voice was screaming that this wasn't proper behavior for a man among men, but the cuddling felt too good, too natural. She had a real friend! "All my life, whenever anything goes wrong Pop would blame it on me. And then you didn't blame me for what happened and I was so _happy_, and I started crying and couldn't stop and guys aren't supposed to cry, _girls_ cry, and ... and ..."

Nabiki chuckled. "Ranma, whatever you may be when you aren't here, right now you definitely are not a guy."

Ranma stiffened and sat up straight in Nabiki's lap. "Hey, I'm a guy, dammit!"

"You may be male in your mind, but physically you are definitely female. And just like girls are usually weaker than guys are, so too are they more likely to cry. At least that's how it works for humans, and from how you were acting earlier I'd say it works the same way for your type of nature spirit."

"Really?"

Nabiki chuckled again. "Really. Just because you cry more easily like this doesn't mean you aren't as manly as ever when you get some hot water."

Ranma relaxed again, laying her head back on that convenient shoulder. "Thanks, Nabiki."

Before Nabiki had a chance to respond, her door flew open and Kasumi stepped inside. "Nabiki, is everything all right? I heard some odd noises, and voices ..." Kasumi's voice died off as she took in the sight of her younger sister sitting on her bed in her night clothes, with a devastatingly cute, very naked redhead cuddled in her lap, and her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh my!" She stared at the frozen pair for a moment, then lowered her hands and sighed. "Nabiki, the imps are mostly harmless and the people you've been blackmailing usually deserve it, but this! Are you really so lonely that this is how you seek ... uhm ... companionship? And what is it costing you?"

As Nabiki's mind raced desperately, trying to process the sudden information dump, Ranma seized on the — to her — important fact. "You can see me!?" she yelled, one hand covering her crotch while her other arm crossed over her breasts, while her face flushed as red as her hair for the second time that night.

"Yes, I can, and hear you as well," Kasumi said with a gentle, slightly confused smile. Ranma wasn't acting the way she would have expected a demon lover to behave. The cute demon was acting much more like an embarrassed teenager.

Nabiki sighed as her mind caught up with events, a little upset with herself for freezing like that however bizarre the night had been. "Kasumi, it isn't what it looks like, and we need to talk."

Kasumi frowned, "Well, I suppose I could get us some tea, and perhaps some clothes for miss demon?"

Ranma scowled in confusion, and Nabiki groaned in irritation. "Kasumi, this is Ranma, she is, as far as I can tell, a nature spirit, not a demon, she is incapable of wearing clothes, or touching things that aren't alive so any clothes would just pass right through her, but I suppose she can sit inside the bed so only her head is visible for now." Ranma jumped at the idea, and quickly drifted down into the bed, winding up looking somewhat like a severed head sticking out of Nabiki's covers near the corner of the bed closest to the door, looking between the two sisters. "Also," Nabiki continued, "hot water seems to dismiss her for some reason, and I don't think nature spirits eat solid food, since they can't even touch it, so don't bother bringing any for her, although perhaps you should leave some water being kept warm, so that she can get dismissed easier later."

Ranma looked like she was considering saying something about this, but Kasumi just smiled somewhat awkwardly and disbelievingly and left, and after a few minutes of silence where Nabiki seemed to examine Ranma in a way that left Ranma feeling a bit awkward, but with a slightly vacant expression that indicated she was reviewing memories and gathering her thoughts, Kasumi returned with some tea.

"All right Nabiki, let me hear your explanation about miss 'Nature Spirit'," Kasumi said, once they were both seated with teacups in hand.

Nabiki blew on her tea a bit to encourage it to cool, before launching into the story of how she'd come to be the friend of a nature spirit that for some reason thought she was a human boy.

Kasumi frowned thoughtfully when her sister finished her explanation and turned to Ranma, who had begun to look a bit antsy. "Do you have anything to say Miss Nature Spirit?" Kasumi asked.

Ranma gestured wildly and rose up, her breasts popping into view above the covers. "I'm a guy! Really! That hot and cold water stuff, It's a curse, see, and when I get dismissed or whatever by touching hot water, I'm really turning back to a human boy and going back to wherever I was when I got hit with cold water last.

"Ya see, a month or so ago I was traveling with Pops, and we came to this weird training grounds, off in China, and there were a bunch of pools of water all around in this misty valley, with a bunch of poles sticking up out of them. We didn't think it was weird or nothing, and were ignorin' the guide there 'cause he didn't speak Japanese too well and we could hardly understand him, although he seemed to think we were weird for some reason. We thought it was just some training ground for balance practice, you fought atop the poles, and if you fell, the water below was real cold, and that would be good motivation not to fall. Pops an' I jumped up there and started fighting, and the guide started yellin' at us. I kinda wish we'd listened...

"Anyway, I wound up knockin' Pops into a spring, and out pops this giant panda, an' I was pretty freaked, because there is a huge panda! And then I notice it's attacking me and it's got Pop's gi on, but badly and kinda torn, and his glasses off one ear and the bandanna he uses to hide his baldness off the other. I was so surprised I might'a forgot to put up my defense, but Pops is pretty good, even as a panda, and he knocks me into another pool, and I'm kinda shocked, and I come out like this.

"The guide winds up tellin' us after a while how these are the _cursed_ springs of Jyuusenkyo, and when you fall in a pool, you turn into whatever drowned there. Pops had fallen into the spring of drowned panda, and I'd been invisible to Pops and the guide I think and flyin' and everything was weird at this point, and the guide says how I'd fallen into spring of drowned ghost girl, least, I think that is what he said and meant, but maybe it was weird nature spirit girl, but there was some kinda translation mistake. Anyway, it turns out that the curses are permanent, but you can temporarily reverse them with hot water, returning to your birth form, so we changed back, 'except whenever we get splashed with cold water, we turn to cursed form again! And not to long after that, pops an' I are traveling, and suddenly I'm here with Nabiki, and she 'splained most of that.

"Anyway, when I get hot water here, I go back to my real form back wherever I was summoned from, and recently, 'cause of this week long summon thingy, whenever I get hit with cold water, suddenly, BAM, I'm right next to Nabiki, or even touchin' her! I don't mean nothin' perverted by it, 's just an accident 'cause a' Nabiki's summon thingy."

There was a few moments of silence, as this registered to Nabiki and Kasumi, and Ranma finally noticed that her breasts were above the bed, promptly blushed, and dropped down again, looking at them somewhat nervously. "Oh yeah, and my name is Saotome Ranma, sorry about this..." she added, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Oh my!" Kasumi exclaimed.

Nabiki shook her head in shock, "Wait, you mean you were serious about all that stuff about curses and being a boy? I thought it was some weird spirit thing that doesn't translate well to human terms, or metaphorical."

"Metawhatsit?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki groaned. "Metaphorical, a metaphor is where you describe something by calling it something else similar."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I'm really a guy, sorry if ya misunderstood." She looked kind of depressed and worried, and Nabiki realized she was probably expecting some sort of rejection.

"It's all right, Ranma, we're still friends. Now that I think about it, this actually explains a lot. I don't see how it is possible to change from a human to a spirit and back, it defies all sorts of theoretical laws of magic I've read about, not to mention the power requirements for such a transformation, I've got no clue where they come from, but it definitely doesn't come from water ...

"Anyway, humans aren't able to be summoned, at least not normally and with the sort of summoning spells I use and know about, so when hot water deactivates the curse, the effect that translates your location to here is canceled, as when you summon something it doesn't 'really' leave wherever you pulled it from, it is still tied to its 'home' or whatever, the place that it came from before being summoned, it is more that the summoners energy allows its presence to be here instead, even while it is meant to be there. Initially I was just summoning you with temporary spells, which got dispelled when you stopped being a spirit, but when I got you with a long term summoning, it stuck with your cursed form, so whenever you get changed to cursed form right now, you find yourself right by me, as I'm the summoner, and you pop back as soon as you get hot water." Nabiki explained.

Ranma's eyes were slightly wide in understanding, but also slightly vacant, as if she understood the meaning, but the way it was said was a bit beyond her, then nodded, obviously pretending to understand better than she really did, "Yeah, that is what has been happening. And I'm not a demon, or at least if I am right now, I'm not all the time, and I'm a boy usually."

Kasumi nodded thoughtfully, "I suppose that if one can summon demons and spirits, curses might exist too. I'm really sorry that you've been cursed like this, Ranma, and I hope Nabiki's hobby hasn't caused you too much trouble with your father."

Ranma grinned and shook her head, "Naah! It's good to get a break from Pop once in a while like this. Nabiki's cool, I've never had a friend like her. She gets me hot water without complainin', and don't blame me for everything, like when I accidentally touched her breasts, she didn't go poundin' me and callin' me a pervert like what happened to Pop the last time he accidentally did that to a lady, or how Pop always tells me how everythin' going wrong 's my fault! It's kinda weird being in China one moment, and here the next, but right now it's great, because I can get away from Pop whenever I want just by touchin' some cold water. And if the old fart don't like it, he can screw himself, 'cause he deserves it after takin' us to Jyuusenkyo from that dumb guidebook without bein' able to read Chinese and see the warnings on the damn thing, and knockin' me in after he'd gotten cursed."

Kasumi gazed thoughtfully at Ranma's apparently disembodied head sticking out of the bed. "Come on out, Ranma. You're going to be visiting awhile, and you can't be diving through floors or walls every time I walk into the room you're in if we are going to be friends."

"A-are ya sure?" Ranma stuttered.

Kasumi nodded with a smile. "Yes, it isn't as if you can help your lack of clothes, and if Nabiki can get used to it I can as well."

"She's right, Ranma," Nabiki agreed, and as Ranma rose Nabiki grabbed her arm and pulled her back into her lap, then sighed when Ranma stiffened. "Relax, Ranma, it's not like you have anywhere else to sit here that you won't sink through." She turned back to Kasumi. "So, big sis, just how long have you been able to see spirits?"

"Oh, all my life! I used to have the most wonderful 'imaginary friends' that would play with me and tell me stories."

"And why did you activate your sight when you came here?" Nabiki asked.

"Activate it? I didn't — it's on all the time."

"It is!? But when Ranma showed up at dinner, right in the middle of the table, you didn't even flinch!"

"Oh, I've had a lot of practice at not reacting to the spirits nobody else can see. Invisible friends are cute for children, but when you grow up you have to stop noticing them or people think you're strange." Kasumi looked sad for a moment. "Most of my spirit friends stopped coming by after mother died and I had to take over the housework and didn't have time to play. I suppose I just wasn't fun anymore. Still, a few do stop by occasionally. Perhaps we can ask them about what kind of nature spirit Ranma turns into."

Nabiki nodded, then broke out in a huge yawn. Instantly, Kasumi exclaimed, "Oh my, it's late! And you have school tomorrow, or is that today? We still need to discuss some issues, such as how you were able to summon _Saotome_ Ranma in the first place," she shot Nabiki a sharp glance, "but that can wait until later. Ranma, let me get you some hot water."

"Hold on a moment," Nabiki said. "Ranma, can you float under your own power for a moment? Let me check out the weather." The naked redhead floated up and out of the way, and Nabiki walked over and sat in front of her desktop computer, booting it up and quickly searching the internet weather sites for radar views over China, Kasumi walking over to look over her shoulder. "Ranma, do you know where in China you fell asleep?"

Ranma shook her head as she floated over and joined Kasumi looking curiously at the monitor screen. "No, I don't. Pop an' me spent months gettin' to Jusenkyo, but we wandered all over lookin' for dojos and monasteries that ain't there anymore."

"Hmm," Nabiki frowned. "What's the ground like where this Jusenkyo is located, plains, mountains, forests?"

"Up in the mountains somewhere, with forests. We ain't there now, anyway. For a couple of weeks we've been headed for the coast — movin' pretty quick, too, Pop must have done somethin' really bad to get those women at the village we visited right after the cursed springs mad, big surprise," Ranma said, rolling her eyes.

Nabiki chuckled, then sat and thought for a moment. "Where are you headed, and in which direction?"

"Back to Japan, an' we've been movin' east."

"All right, so you're a few weeks' fast travel by foot east of a mountain range and west of Japan." Nabiki shifted to the appropriate maps and frowned. "Ranma, looking as the weather patterns, there's no point in sending you back to China right now, you'll probably be right back here again before morning. And if you're asleep and I don't wake up you could sink right through the bed, floor, the floor below and into the ground, there's nothing living below to stop you. I'd say you're stuck here tonight. In fact, it would probably be a good idea for you to spend all your nights here until the summoning's time limit wears off, or at least come here to have me check the weather every evening."

Kasumi nodded, "Good thinking, little sis. I'll just make up a futon in the guest room —"

Nabiki smirked slightly. "Weren't listening too closely, were you, big sis? We can't use the futons, Ranma'd just sink through them. We'd need a bed covering that's alive."

"Hmm," Kasumi tapped her lip uncertainly. "I ... I suppose she could sleep on the grass in the yard ..."

Nabiki's smirk grew. "Now Kasumi, is that any way to treat a guest? She'll sleep here with me."

"What?!" Ranma and Kasumi chorused loudly.

"Sure, any night Ranma bounces here she'll end up in my bed anyway, might as well start the night that way."

Ranma was blushing yet again while Kasumi frowned. "Nabiki, that isn't exactly proper."

Nabiki's smirk turned into an outright laugh. "Come on, Kasumi, since when have I been all that concerned with 'proper'? And is having a guest sleeping on the lawn more 'proper'? Besides —" with a huge yawn "— even if I was inclined to try anything, which I'm not, I'm too tired, and who's going to see anything?"

Now Ranma's blush was replaced by confusion, but Kasumi reluctantly giggled, then just as reluctantly nodded. "Very well." She turned toward the door, and flipped the light off on her way out. "A good night to you both."

Nabiki got back onto her bed and motioned to the now barely visible figure of her new friend. "Come on, Ranma, let's get to sleep."

Even seen only as a dark shape, Ranma's hesitation was obvious. "Are ... are ya sure 'bout this, Nabiki? I could make do with the lawn, really..."

Nabiki shook her head. "No, Ranma, it's not like we haven't been cuddling already a good part of the night, better to stay here. Besides, I think I'd like to spend the night with a ... a friend."

"A-Alright, Nabiki." Ranma floated over and turned onto her side and settled down onto Nabiki's outstretched right arm lying on the bed. Nabiki pulled the blanket over the two of them (which promptly sank through Ranma, of course), and yawned yet again. "Good night, Ranma."

"Good night, Nabiki," came back the soft, uncertain reply.


	4. Public Notice

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

***KNOCK KNOCK***

Nabiki sleepily opened her eyes, and looked around her room. She definitely wasn't in Mad King Ludwig's bedroom. She smiled down at the cute naked redhead sleeping curled up in her arms even as she blushed beet-red. _And this definitely isn't a muscular, black-haired guy — not exactly experienced, but definitely a fast learner with endurance to spare. Wow, what a dream!_ She took a sniff of the air. _I'm definitely going to need to thoroughly clean up before school today._

***KNOCK KNOCK***

Nabiki slid her left hand up Ranma's arm and gently shook her shoulder. As Ranma came awake and sat up (and immediately started to sink into the bed before she caught herself) Nabiki frowned thoughtfully, so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Ranma's blush on seeing her. _That dream was rather odd, though. I mean, sure, Ludwig's bedroom was romantic enough, a great place for a tryst, but why would I dream of a prince that's younger than I am and dressed in a worn gi?_

"Nabiki, are you awake?" came Kasumi's voice through the door. "You're late for breakfast, and you'll be late for school if you don't hurry."

_What!?_ Even as Ranma floated up from the bed, Nabiki was out of bed and diving for her toiletries. "I'll be right down, Kasumi, thanks!" she shouted towards the door as she glanced at the clock. _I slept right through the alarm! I haven't even slept till the alarm went off in years! Still, I do feel great, I'm going to have to sleep with cute redheads, or at least _a particular _cute redhead, more often,_ Nabiki thought with a grin.

"Uh, Nabiki?" Ranma said nervously, rubbing the back of her head, "I'd better get back to China. Pop is gonna be wonderin' what I'm up to by now, an' as fun as it is to make him squirm sometimes I don't want him to get to askin' too many questions ..."

Nabiki nodded distractedly. "You're right, you need to get back. Come on, there's hot water in the furo."

Nabiki quickly dashed down to the furo, with Ranma flying after her. Even as Nabiki started to lather up, Ranma flushed and looked away and floated over to the furo. "Bye, Nabiki, see ya later," she said as she sank into the hot water and disappeared.

Nabiki watched with a wry and slightly lustful smile, the aftereffects of the previous night's dream still echoing through her. Shaking off an idle daydream, she quickly but thoroughly washed herself off and dressed in her school uniform, grabbed her school supplies, then rushed to the family room. She arrived just in time to see Akane headed out to school, and Kasumi waiting for her with an unusually large bento.

"You're too late for breakfast, so I made you twice as much as usual for lunch," Kasumi said with her usual serene smile firmly in place, then glanced at their father, still sitting at the table reading the morning paper, and walked with Nabiki to the front door. In a low voice Kasumi asked, "Ranma headed back to China?"

"Yeah, she said she needed to get back before her father got too curious about where she's been. Barring more rain we probably won't see her until tonight."

"I see. Well, you had better get going before you're late," Kasumi replied, and watched pensively as her younger sister strode off in Akane's wake. _It really isn't proper, sleeping with a naked girl like that, even a nature spirit — especially when the girl is actually a boy. And if I'm right about the way little sis swings ... Still, she seemed unusually cheerful this morning._ Kasumi sighed, then stiffened. _What was that?_ She glanced around subtly — nothing. _I could have sworn for a moment I felt a presence, a powerful one. I must be getting jumpy._ Kasumi closed the door and with a small sigh turned back to the breakfast dishes and the day's cleaning.

/\

Outside, twenty feet up in the air, two goddesses hovered and watched as Kasumi closed the door, then turned and watched Nabiki stride off toward the school. "Urd, you should be more careful," Belldandy gently chided her older sister. "You left my obscuration field for a moment; Kasumi sensed you."

"Well, I _expected_ you to follow Nabiki," Urd grumbled. "So why aren't we?"

"Because my task is done, big sis, it is time to go home," Belldandy replied serenely, smiling as Nabiki vanished from sight.

"What, already? But you hardly did anything, how can you be done? You sure you just don't want to get back to Keiichi?" Urd responded, glancing slyly at her younger half-sister.

Belldandy blushed slightly and sent a small frown Urd's way. "No, as much as I've missed Keiichi he has nothing to do with this. It is simply that the mission is complete."

"Just like that, huh? And why was I sent along to watch, anyway?"

Belldandy sighed. "Kami-sama sent you along to observe, big sis, because while you have a good heart you lack subtlety and flexibility. Remember that saying Keiichi used the last time you tried your potions on us: 'If all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails'. Urd, there are situations for which your potions are neither needed nor helpful. Nabiki needed a true and honorable friend to steer her from the path she was following, and thanks to my minor and occasional interference with her summonings she now has one. And no, not 'just like that'. They are very different people, and will have their rough moments. But they are both also very lonely, and unlikely to let those rough moments get in the way of their friendship, and perhaps even a stronger bond."

"Really?" asked Urd doubtfully. "Even when Mara takes notice that the wheels are coming off her nice, tidy seduction and starts working to break them up or turn this to her advantage?"

"Even then," Belldandy replied. "Mara is unlikely to be able to overcome their need for each other or corrupt Ranma. But even if she does, that will be their choice — I have given them a chance, now it is up to them to accept it or not. Now come, sister, let's go home." She blushed again. "You are right that I've missed Keiichi these past few weeks and am eager to see him again."

The two goddesses moved unnoticed into the Tendo household, and Belldandy watched Urd vanish into the TV, then eagerly headed to the furo and vanished into the mirror there, returning to her beloved Keiichi.

/oOo\

Nabiki walked down the street toward the school, still unable to get the memories of her dream out of her mind, an image of the black-haired, muscled, slightly taller hunk and what he'd done to her playing on the screen of her mind's eye. _Wow, girl, when you get frustrated you really get frustrated! Still, it was a bit odd — Mad King Ludwig's bedroom was no surprise, but finding a shy young hunk in a battered, dirty gi instead of the usual older prince sure was. I wonder if Ranma had anything to do with that? She's certainly confused enough! She was _so_ cute this morning._

For a moment, the black-haired hunk from her dream morphed into the tiny, naked redhead she'd spent the night cuddling up to, before Nabiki jerked to a stop and shook her head to dispel the image. _Whoa, watch it, girl — you've got a great thing going here, so don't go getting ideas! As shy as she is, you make one pass and she'll bolt. The fact that she'll get bounced back to you whenever she — he — gets wet won't help either. She'll end up feeling trapped and resent it like hell._ Nabiki glanced around, and was disturbed to find herself a block past the entrance to the school grounds._ Girl, you haven't zoned out like that in years. Just because you have a friend now doesn't mean you stop being careful._ She turned and strode back toward the entrance as the image of a redhead sinking down toward the furo rose up into her mind.

/\

Yuka stood beside Sayuri at the school building's main entrance, the two watching a panting Akane standing over and scowling down at a once again unconscious Upperclassman Kuno. Yuka sighed. "You know, Sayuri, these morning brawls are getting really old. Leaving aside that it's impossible to get a date now, I really don't like what it's doing to Akane."

Sayuri idly nodded. "Agreed, but what can we do about it? There isn't much point to complaining about Kuno, and so long as the underclassmen are afraid of him nothing is going to change." Sayuri's gaze wandered over the groaning and/or unconscious boys scattered around Akane and up toward the gate and froze, her jaw dropping.

Yuka glanced at her shocked friend. "Sayuri, what's up?"

"It's Nabiki, she's _smiling_!"

"What!?" Yuka whirled to face the gate and stared. "I don't believe it!"

Sayuri shook herself out of her shock and strode toward Akane through the morning battle's debris. "Hey, Akane, what's up with Nabiki?"

Akane looked up at one of her two best friends, her scowl fading to be replaced with confusion. "Nothing that I know of, why?"

"Turn around."

Akane turned and stared at her older sister, approaching them with a gentle smile on her face and apparently oblivious to everything around them. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Nabiki look like that!"

Yuka joined the other two, also watching the approaching Nabiki, and grinned. "I've never seen that look on _Nabiki_, but I've definitely seen it before — on my older sister during her last big crush. Have there been any boys hanging around the Ice Queen you haven't told us about?"

Akane glared at her other best friend, and growled, "No! If any of those perverts had come around I would have sent them packing." The glare faded to a concerned look as her gaze shifted back to Nabiki and in a worried tone she added, "She hasn't been out of the house enough in the last week to meet any pervert somewhere else. When she hasn't been in school she's been in her room playing on her computer or working on her calligraphy." She strode to meet her sister and reached out to grasp her shoulder.

Nabiki jumped at the touch, and her smile faded as she focused on Akane. "Akane, what's up?"

"I think that's my question."

Nabiki stiffened and shrugged. "Nothing's up, why do you ask?"

"You seem a bit different today. You aren't somehow meeting one of those perverted boys, are you?"

With a laugh, Nabiki shook her head and gazed around at the human detritus surrounding them. "One of these gutless wonders? Please! I have better taste than _that_." Just then, the bell signaling the beginning of the school day sounded. Nabiki shook off Akane's hand and moved toward the school entrance, calling back over her shoulder in a sarcastic tone thick enough to cut with a knife, "Come on, girls, time to once again brave our marvelous halls of academe!"

The other three exchanged confused looks and gave a group shrug, before following Nabiki into the school.

/oOo\

Gernma stalked down the trail in his panda form carrying both packs, and fuming. Sure, the rain last night had done its usual job of turning him into a panda and his son invisible and insubstantial, but Ranma had then wandered off who knows where! Genma wasn't about to admit it, even to himself, but he was getting worried — not that Ranma wouldn't be able to find him again, he seemed to be able to do that easily now, but that he was getting completely out of control. Sure, before Jusenkyo Ranma had been _verbally_ disrespectful, but that was just a sign of spirit and he'd still done whatever Genma had demanded. Now, though … refusing to tell his father how he was changing back to his normal form was bad enough, but purposefully turning himself invisible and insubstantial and wandering off whenever he felt like it was worse. Genma didn't think that Ranma was going to take the news of the Tendo engagement well, and he couldn't think of a single way to make the boy stay if he chose to leave — that ungrateful brat was going to throw away Genma's retirement, er, his future running a dojo! Now Genma was beginning to regret mailing that postcard —

With a puff of displaced air, Genma's naked son popped into existence next to the panda, startling him into a growling fighting stance. "Hey, Pop, if ya keep growlin' like that they're gonna think you're dangerous and stick ya in a zoo somewhere! Gimme my pack." The panda growled again but relaxed and passed Ranma's pack to him, then moved off the path and started gathering wood as best he could while his son pulled his clothes out of the pack and got dressed. Both ignored the bird calls coming from farther up the trail.

/\

Shampoo sighed softly to herself as she watched the panda stalking down the path towards the ambush carrying two backpacks. The hunt had taken longer than expected. Shampoo frowned, thinking of the pursuit of the last few weeks even as she glanced to the side, making sure the members of her hunting party on her side of the trail were under cover. It had proven harder to track her fugitive — _shudder_ — husband than she'd expected. It hadn't helped that they could never be sure whether they were trying to find a man or a panda at any particular moment. And then there was the boy that witnesses sometimes reported traveling with the man/panda, where had he come from, and why wasn't he around all the time? Shampoo shrugged slightly even as a panda strode into view, and her magic ring verified the approach of a Jusenkyo-cursed human — now that they'd finally managed to get ahead and set up an ambush they'd have their answers soon enough. Shampoo tensed, getting ready to give the signal and charge.

Suddenly, a boy somewhere around her age popped into view out of thin air, and her necklace, one of the tribe's magical treasures, a detector of magic in operation, briefly but strongly flared on her chest even as her ring's detection of Jusenkyo curses doubled. So the boy had a curse as well, but where had he come from? He couldn't have just been invisible, that wouldn't have stopped the ring from picking him up. And what had the necklace detected at the instance of the boy's appearance, some form of teleportation, perhaps? Shampoo frowned in hopeful thought — while the older man was a powerful and skilled martial artist, he wasn't exactly what she had been looking for in a husband. If this boy was the son he had spoken of back at the village, and if the boy was some sort of mage powerful enough to instantaneously jump across miles, perhaps the exception to the Kiss of Marriage made for powerful mages and their relatives would apply. Even as the panda and the boy moved off the trail, she gave the bird call signaling to the rest of the hunting party to fall back from the ambush and regroup.

Several hours later the Amazons had regathered back at their last camp site, the older women listening as Shampoo explained why she'd called off the ambush. Klensur, Shampoo's second in command (and minder), nodded thoughtfully but gave her decades-younger leader a suspicious glance. "What you've said makes sense, but you're still only guessing. How do you think we should verify this?"

Shampoo, having spent the last few hours considering just that question, already had her plans made. "Klensur, you will take all of the hunting party except me and Harbrus back to the village and let great-grandmother and the other Elders know what we've learned. They will know better how to determine if the boy is truly a mage, or if there are any Jusenkyo curses that could give him the power he used." Shampoo reached into her belt pouch and pulled out two polished pebbles, one of which she gave to Klensur. "Here's a tracking stone, I'll keep the other with me so you can find me later with whatever the Elders say." She turned to a slight but sleekly muscled girl only a few years older than her. "Harbrus, since you're the best stalker and tracker here, you're with me. Tonight you are going to sneak into the panda's camp and plant another tracking stone in his backpack, so the two of us can follow him wherever he goes while we wait for the Elders' response." Then Shampoo cocked an eyebrow at Klensur with a knowing smile.

Klensur chuckled at her young leader's unspoken acknowledgement of her status as Shampoo's minder, then nodded. "Good thinking, let's move." The hunting party quickly broke down their camp and separated, Shampoo and Harbrus setting off after the two males and the rest heading west toward their village.

/oOo\

"I'm home!" Nabiki called out, stopping just inside the front door to remove her shoes.

"Nabiki, you're late!" Kasumi called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, one of my teachers asked me to stay after school. For some reason, he thought I seemed distracted and wanted to make sure nothing was wrong."

Kasumi appeared around the corner. "Nabiki, it is such a beautiful day, and dinner will be simple enough that I can take a break. Would you care to join me for a short walk in the park?"

Nabiki frowned slightly and sharpened her gaze at her older sister for moment, then nodded. "Sure, will Akane be joining us?"

"Oh, no! She's busy practicing the Art and I would hate to interrupt her."

Nabiki's frown disappeared into her usual calm poker face and she nodded. "I see. Just let me drop off my school bag in my room and change out of my school uniform, and I'll be right back down."

/\

Nabiki gazed at Kasumi walking along the park path beside her, and then looked around — nobody else was within earshot. "All right, sis, what did you want to talk about sensitive enough that we couldn't discuss it at home?"

Kasumi seemed to struggle for words for a moment, then sighed. "Nabiki, last night you said that nothing was going to happen if Ranma spent the night in your bed."

Nabiki stopped and stared at her sister in confusion. "But nothing happened, what makes you think differently?"

"The calls I've received today from old friends still in school asking who the lucky boy is that's melted the Ice Queen's heart."

"What!?" Nabiki shouted, then blushed and looked around to see if her outburst had attracted anyone's attention. She started walking again and Kasumi hurried a few steps to catch up. "I'm telling you, Kasumi, nothing happened except the best night's sleep I've had in ages, and I'm not about to ruin a good thing by trying to change that."

Kasumi nodded, then glanced sharply at her sister as she caught a low mutter of "Only in my daydreams." She frowned again slightly. "What was that, Nabiki? I didn't quite hear you."

"Only in your dreams!" Nabiki hurriedly said, and thought quickly, looking for a distraction. "Kasumi, last night when you said we still had things to talk about, you emphasized the name 'Saotome' as if I should know it. Why?"

Kasumi continued to frown thoughtfully at Nabiki for a moment longer, then sighed and accepted the change of subject. "I take it you don't remember Auntie Saotome?"

Nabiki stared at her in shock. "_Auntie_ Saotome? No, I don't."

Kasumi nodded. "I suppose there's no reason you should, really. She was one of mother's best friends and used to visit regularly, but stopped coming by after mother died. She didn't spend much time talking to any of us but mother, and I seem to remember that she seemed sad, even ... pained whenever she'd look at us children. Perhaps it had something to do with her son, she stopped by briefly a few years ago to ask if we'd seen him or his father — it seems they went on an extended training trip and she hadn't heard from them in a number of years. I told her that neither had ever visited, of course."

Nabiki found she'd come to a stop again as she stared at Kasumi and quickly resumed walking as she thought. "You know, I am coming to really detest Ranma's father. Are you sure that it's the same two?"

Kasumi nodded. "I cannot remember the first name of either that Auntie Saotome asked about, but I find the coincidence unlikely."

Nabiki nodded herself. "Agreed. What was Auntie Saotome's first name?"

"I can't remember hers, either," Kasumi admitted reluctantly. "All that I can recall is a tall, regal woman with fading red hair dressed in a formal kimono and carrying a katana all bundled up."

"Sounds like I have my work cut out for me locating her," Nabiki groaned.

"Are you sure that's wise? Ranma's father _could_ have a good reason for his decision not to visit."

"From what Ranma's said I seriously doubt that," Nabiki remarked dryly, "but nothing says that I have to let Ranma know about her when I find her. I'll do a little research, see what I can learn and let you know before we tell her."

Kasumi nodded, then glanced at her watch. "Oh my! I completely lost track of time, we must get back home immediately so I can finish dinner."

Nabiki sighed softly in relief, and the two turned back toward home.

/oOo\

Ranma was really taking a bruising. Usually, he had no problem fending off his father's attempts to surprise him as they hiked, but today he kept getting distracted thinking about the dream he'd had the previous night. Where had he seen anything remotely as luxurious as that bedroom he'd dreamed of him and Nabiki meeting in? He must have seen something like it somewhere, but he couldn't think of where. _And I can't have forgotten anything like that, if only 'cause of the shouting when Pop tried to steal everything in sight._ And after all this time seeing Nabiki nude with only the faintest hint of distortion from her see-through clothing, actually seeing her covered, if not much, had seemed strange. Not that she'd stayed dressed very long... Ranma blushed yet again and Genma, currently human and long since recognizing the signal of certain distraction, promptly bounced Ranma off the nearest tree then frowned at his son as Ranma got back to his feet. "Boy, I know you can't match me on your best day, but this is pitiful. What is your problem!?"

Ranma rubbed his shoulder and glared at his father. "Just tryin' to figure out how to tell people about this bust of a trip when we get back to Japan. Wait, I know, I'll just tell 'em how my idiot of a father used a guide book over a century old, that'll explain everything!" Then Ranma gave a cocky grin as Genma charged with a growl almost as good as he could give as a panda and flipped his father into the stream running beside their path. As Genma crawled out of the stream, Ranma glanced at the setting sun and shrugged off his backpack and quickly undressed, and with an "I'm tired of your whining, Pop, see ya whenever," stepped into the stream and vanished from his frustrated father's sight.

/\

Nabiki, dinner long over and her homework complete, sat back in frustration and glared at her computer monitor. _Amazing how many Saotomes there are in Japan. There's no way to whittle the list down without making assumption on assumption, and if any of my guesses are wrong the entire exercise will be a waste of time._ She gazed out the window at the moonless night, then glanced at the clock. _Hmm, it should be getting on to nightfall around where Ranma should be in China, I'm surprised she hasn't shown up yet._ Then she grinned as the long (Nabiki tried to pretend not 'and anxiously') awaited curvy redhead popped into view, floating above the bed. "Ranma, good to see you. I'm surprised you didn't get here sooner."

Ranma rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Aw, I didn't wanna make Pop any more curious than I had to."

Nabiki nodded as she shut down her computer and started changing into her night clothes. "Sensible. Well, come on, it's been a long day, let's get to sleep."

"Ah, Nabiki, I-I really think I ought t-ta spend the night on the lawn," Ranma stuttered, blushing.

Nabiki paused in the middle of pulling on her top and frowned at her naked guest, trying to keep an appreciative gleam out of her eyes. "Now, Ranma, it would be an insult to have you sleeping on our lawn, and we can't have that! Now, be a good girl, ah, boy," Nabiki quickly corrected when Ranma flinched, "and come on!" she stated firmly as she finished dressing for the night. She turned out the light, strode to the bed, and threw back the covers and climbed in, motioning for Ranma to join her.

Ranma reluctantly again lay down on Nabiki's outstretched right arm, stiffened as both Nabiki's arms encircled her waist and pulled her up against Nabiki's front so that they were spooned together, then slowly relaxed as nothing else happened. Just as she started to drift off, Nabiki murmured something in her ear. "Huh? Whazzat?" Ranma asked drowsily.

"I asked what you remember about your mother," Nabiki replied more loudly.

Ranma came back awake a bit and shrugged. "Nothin' really. Just a few memories of a nice woman with red hair." Ranma chuckled sleepily. "Guess we know where my red hair comes from." After a moment's hesitation she added, "Pop never talks about her, and when I used to ask he'd just ignore me and come up with another stupid trainin' method."

Ranma felt the soft air from Nabiki's snort blow on the top of her head. "Figures," Nabiki said. "You don't even remember her name?"

Ranma shook her head. "Nah, 'fraid not. Why d'ya ask?"

"Oh, just curious," Nabiki said, then yawned. "Good night, Ranma, sweet dreams."

Ranma felt her face warm as she blushed beet-red. "G'night, Nabiki," she replied, and together the two quickly drifted off to sleep.

A half-hour later, the two were so deeply asleep that neither stirred when a beam of light fell across the bed as Kasumi cracked open the door and peeked into the room. She gazed at the two for a moment, sighed to herself, then yawned, quietly closed the door, and headed off to her own bed.

* * *

No major rewriting this time, but I _did_ shuffle things around a bit to put them into chronological order rather than separating them out by location as in my original Anime Addventures episodes.


	5. Second Night

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

This has the first high-citrus content of the story. I hope I've toned it down enough for an 'M' rating, the description is rather general—certainly, this isn't any worse than what you can find in modern romances that minors can buy off the rack. The full, unedited version is available on AO3.

* * *

_**Origin**_

The Succubus is a nature spirit, though considered to be demonic by Christians during the Medieval Era. Originally restricted to Europe, they have followed Europeans throughout the world and now can be found wherever Europeans have settled in large numbers, though Succubae have had limited success in spreading beyond those settlements.

_**Description**_

The Succubus takes the shape of a naked and beautiful, or at least cute, human female in all of the shades of skin and hair color found throughout Europe. In its natural form it is invisible to almost all non-Awakened humans and incorporeal to all nonliving substances. As it matures, it gains the ability to temporarily become visible to Sleepers in whatever human form it chooses of either sex, and is able to appear dressed however it wills when it does.

_**Habits**_

Succubae are nocturnal predators. They feed off the energy produced by lust, merging with their victims and inducing erotic dreams to produce the required stimulation. The victim usually dismisses the entire incident as just another erotic dream, leaving the nature spirit free to repeatedly feed on the same people without arousing suspicion. Succubae are universally bisexual, feeding on men and women with equal enthusiasm and taking whatever dream form needed to sexually arouse their victims. Usually, they allow the dreamer to shape the dream and merely fit themselves into whatever partner and activity the dreamer comes up with, though Succubae can take more active control if they choose.

Succubae are able to reproduce by collecting sperm from a human male through physical sex (though usually using its ability to control dreams to keep the victim asleep through the entire encounter), and then forming a penis and impregnating a human female (again, keeping the victim asleep). Succubae have a mating instinct that drives them to do this on a yearly basis, and the female hosts always become pregnant, whatever point they might be at in their monthly cycle. Most of these pregnancies will seem to miscarry at about the third month of pregnancy, but will actually produce an immature Succubus that will be left to survive (or not) on its own — most do not survive to maturity, falling victim to supernatural predators. Those that do survive reach full maturity in five years, after which point they are virtually immortal, unaging and with few natural predators. The very few male children produced by such unions are fully human, though universally born Awakened and often of a high level of power. Such births have produced many of the most famous mages in history — Merlin is the best known, but far from the only example.

Succubae are very hard to permanently destroy. Their physical bodies may be destroyed normally, but upon 'death' they merely dissipate only to reform (starved for 'food') when night falls. They may be driven off or captured by the appropriate magical rites, but it requires damage from a supernatural creature or magically-imbued weapon to permanently kill one...

— _An Introduction to the Nature Spirits of Europe_, by Professor Albus Dumbledore.

* * *

Hikaru Gosunkugi lay in his bed and glared through the darkness toward the unseen ceiling, grinding his teeth. The rumor mill at school had been working overtime like never before, the entire student body abuzz over the sudden change in Nabiki's demeanor. The general consensus had been that a guy had somehow gotten through Nabiki's icy shell and found something resembling a real woman, though Akane had vociferously denied the possibility. A few students had agreed with her reasoning, but most simply shrugged it off as Akane having her own not unreasonable problems and most of the speculation had been over just who her new beau was. Suggestions had ranged from one of the students (with a large betting pool forming over which one it might be), one of the teachers (another, smaller betting pool), or perhaps a family friend, skilled in the martial arts and able to provide enough protection that she could relax (a very small betting pool, since this one was a yes-or-no question, nobody knowing any such Tendo family friends). No one had asked Gosunkugi for his own opinion, of course — if there was anyone in the school as socially isolated as Nabiki it was him — but he knew and this time knowing something that nobody else did wasn't the joy it usually was, because Nabiki and summoned and bound her own personal nature spirit fucktoy.

He had long known that Nabiki was a practitioner of the Mystic Arts, of course. Her Awakening several years ago had been impossible to miss for anyone in Japan's mystic community that saw her, and Gosunkugi had been amazed and a bit jealous at the level of power she'd manifested. Still, he'd been able to console himself with the fact that, while powerful, she was completely untrained while he had the knowledge and traditions of his family's generations of immersion in the Arts to draw on — strength is fine, but useless without the knowledge of how to use it, and his ancestors had been shadow advisers and protectors of emperors and shoguns, high in Japan's shadow aristocracy. His jealousy had been born when he'd come across her purchasing supplies in one of the few stores that catered to the _real_ Initiates and realized that she was actually learning how to practice the Art instead of being satisfied with whatever innate talents she might have acquired since her Awakening. Still, he'd told himself that, in spite of her power, she'd never have the resources he had to draw on and so could never be his equal. That had changed the other day, when he'd passed her in the school hall accompanied by a busty, cute, and obviously natural red-haired humanlike nature spirit. It hadn't been hard to figure out just why Nabiki had bound that spirit to her, and the daze she'd been in when he'd seen her at lunch today had just confirmed his suspicions. Now, with the knowledge that she'd succeeded in a summoning that he'd failed over and over, his envy flared to toxic heights to mix with old jealousy and the white-hot anger that resulted ate at him like cancer.

Finally he gave up on sleep and, quickly getting dressed and slipping unnoticed out of the house, he headed for the Furinkan school and an isolated and overlooked shed (thanks to his ritual of avoidance) on the school grounds. He would teach that upstart bitch of a nobody a lesson she'd never forget!

/\

Gosunkugi gazed in satisfaction through the slight haze of incense smoke at the imp crouched within his summoning circle. Details were difficult to make out in the flickering candle light, but didn't really matter — one imp was as good as another, weak and not particularly intelligent, but useful as scouts and spies if their instructions were clear. He cleared his throat, and in what he fondly considered a commanding tone he said, "You understand you instructions? You are to spy on Nabiki and her new red-haired spirit slave, and report back to me, _at the school_, not my home, when you know its true name."

"Yes, master," the imp replied, cringing slightly. _You've only repeated it three times,_ it mentally added scornfully to itself.

"Very well. Go, and do not return until you have fulfilled your orders," Gosunkugi intoned, then scratched a break in the summoning circle and cracked open the shed door. In a flash, the imp was through the circle's gap, out the door, and off into the moonless night.

/oOo\

As the imp known as Gorash ran through the quiet night toward the Tendo dojo it snarled in anger and injured pride as it thought about the "master" that had given it its marching orders. _What a complete idiot! He didn't even try to dominate or bargain, he just gave me my 'orders' and sent me on my way. He didn't even try to learn my true name! Too bad I couldn't tell him what to do with his 'orders', but Mara's general directive was clear — until she says otherwise, that moron is to think he's the greatest summoner of the age._

Noticing a stray cat in an alley as it passed, Gorash backed up to walk unseen past the wino sipping from his bottle and up to the cat. The cat saw the imp, of course, and hissed at the intruder in its territory. Gorash's head instantly ballooned to four times normal size, bared a set of fangs to do a tiger proud, and _roared_. The cat instantly backed up in a crouch, then turned and fled yowling into the night. Gorash's head returned to its normal size and it walked back past the puzzled wino staring after the fled alley cat, feeling much better. _Nothing lasts forever,_ Gorash consoled itself as it again started running toward the dojo. _Eventually the idiot's usefulness will be over, and then that overbearing bastard is ours!_ A vicious grin crossed its face as for a moment as it contemplated the fun the demons would have 'playing' with Gosunkugi when the time came, then disappeared as the entrance to the dojo came into sight. _Ah well, to work,_ it thought and started to circle the premises.

**/\**

A short time later, Gorash was back in front of the dojo entrance, disappointed but not surprised. _A ward covering the entire property, without a single gap and too strong to break through, much less without being noticed — and after only a year's practice, impressive. I can see why Mara is so eager to get this Nabiki working for us, and to become one of Mara's lieutenants when her time comes. Now, _that's_ a mistress I'd be proud to serve under._ Gorash walked to the home across the street and slipped behind the rose bush beside the front entrance. _Nothing for it but to wait until she goes to school and try and follow her without being noticed, and hope she lets something slip, then see if Mara wants the moron to have that particular bit of information._ Gorash sighed as it settled down. _Yeah, right, 'just'. _Nabiki_ isn't an idiot. This is going to be a _long_ assignment._

/oOo\

Meanwhile, in Nabiki's bed (sort of):

The fog cleared and Ranma looked around at another opulent bedroom, curtains hung around the bed — carpets really — tied to the posts of the bed's canopy, more carpets hung on the walls embroidered with scenes from European history and mythology, everything indicative of wealth beyond his father's wildest dreams. Glancing down, he found his male body dressed in a worn and dirty gi instead of the red shirt and black pants he had picked up in China.

"Well, well, I'm certainly happy to you again," said a familiar voice behind him, sounding pleased. Ranma turned to find Nabiki lounging in a chair against the wall by the entrance, dressed in a two-piece lingerie. She rose and sauntered toward him, a hungry smile on her face. One of her arms went around his back, the other pulled his head forward and slightly down into a searing kiss. Ranma's hands dropped to massage her butt-cheeks, left bare by her thong, and pulled her groin against the growing tent in his pants as an unfamiliar feeling of rightness and eagerness swept through him. Nabiki chuckled throatily. "Well, it seems you're happy to see me, too." She pushed back and started undoing the ties to Ranma's gi top as she commented, "It's unusual for me to get the same man from one of these dreams to another, and you aren't my normal handsome prince. Just what is your name?"

In a voice made husky by desire, he responded, "Ranma Saotome."

Nabiki's fingers froze on the ties even as his gi top fell open. Then she abruptly pushed out from his embrace and took a couple of shaky steps back. "It really is you, isn't it? You aren't just a figment of my imagination, y-y-you're the real thing!" she stammered.

Ranma nodded in response to Nabiki's stunned question. "Yes, I am," he managed to get out as he stepped toward her.

Nabiki thought back over the way the red-haired _female_ nature spirit she'd befriended had covered herself when they'd first met — had blushed and stammered at the least hint of physical intimacy — and managed to ask through her rapidly growing lust, "Ranma, are you sure about this?"

Ranma paused for a moment at the question. Something wasn't right, something inside him was shouting that he wasn't like this, but a _need_ was growing in him to fill an odd emptiness at his core that he vaguely remembered from the previous dream, making it hard to think and drowning out that shouting voice, burying it to a faint echo — his response was to pull Nabiki into another deep kiss, his hands running smoothly over her back and ass.

"I guess you are," she murmured against his lips as her hands followed suit, "let's see if you remember last night's lesson..." She ran her tongue from one corner of his mouth to the other, then used it to push his lips apart and began a duel with his tongue as her own need grew.

Ranma was enjoying the feel of their tongues intertwining, Nabiki's breath on his skin, the taste of her mouth, groins pressed together. But the need for something more was growing stronger, and Nabiki yelped as Ranma scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, sat down on the edge of the bed with her seated across his lap, then eagerly resumed the tongue duel. As the kiss continued, Ranma's left hand drifted to her lingerie top's tie behind her at chest level and slowly pulled the bow apart, then did the same with the bow behind her neck while his right hand softly stroked her stomach and then up along the underside of her breasts. As Nabiki moaned at the little bursts of electricity the soft touch seemed to send ricocheting through her body, Ranma felt something trickle into the void at his core, slowly beginning to fill it.

Nabiki broke the kiss and sighed with pleasure as she slid the untied top down her arms and tossed it aside, neither of the two lovers noticing that it vanished before hitting the floor. Ranma's fingers moved from the undersides of her breasts up through the valley between them, then over one breast while his head dipped down to the other, suckling and nipping as the flow into his core strengthened.

Nabiki's moans deepened at the attention her orbs were receiving. She ran her hands along Ranma's back and stomach, working them under his undershirt and pushing it upward as her left hand moved up his stomach to rub his chest, returning the favor. She protested inarticulately when Ranma stopped playing with her breasts, then sighed in relief and renewed pleasure when he quickly slipped off his untied gi top and lifted his undershirt off over his head and tossed it aside (both garments following Nabiki's top into nonexistence), then renewed his assault on her chest with right hand and mouth while his left hand resumed stroking up and down her back.

Ranma was enjoying the flow of energy into his void, but it still wasn't coming fast enough! Thinking back to the previous night, he continued his mouth's licking, sucking, and nipping while one hand slipped down across her stomach to slip underneath underneath her now soaked thong. Nabiki gasped, jerking slightly at the touch and swinging her left leg out to give Ranma greater access as her left hand rose to take over playing with the breast Ranma had abandoned and her right hand began rubbing against the tent in his pants.

Ranma shivered as the rate of energy flowing into him jumped again, and Nabiki's moans grew louder as she began to jerk slightly in his arm, unconsciously trying to pump her hips. Suddenly, Nabiki stiffened and screamed, only the hold of Ranma's left arm keeping her in his lap, and Ranma shouted as the energy he had been savoring exploded into him. But it wasn't enough….

Nabiki went limp against Ranma's chest as aftershocks pulsed through her and her thoughts came back online. In the back of her mind something was nagging at her, not right…. _Did I hear Ranma shout? But why would _he_ shout when I orgasm ... ?_ She glanced up at Ranma's face. _Are his eyes glowing?_ Then her thoughts derailed again as Ranma slid his right hand out of her now-soaked thong, under her legs, and picked her up and swung around to lay her down on the bed they had been sitting on. Nabiki gasped as he stepped back and untied his pants, quickly shoving them down along with his boxers and stepping out of them. Then Ranma stepped forward again and eagerly, almost roughly, gripped her thong and slid it down and off her legs and tossed it into disregarded oblivion.

Both of the two now completely nude, Ranma crawled onto the bed and between the legs that Nabiki eagerly spread open before him. She reached down and guided into her, chuckling throatily. " 'Wild Horse', indeed! Come on, show this mare how well you remember your lessons." Then she yelped as Ranma just growled in response and buried himself in one thrust. She resumed moaning and panting, words lost in the pleasure again washing through her body in waves as he started pounding into her.

Ranma was also finding himself riding waves of pleasure, as each wave of pleasure echoing through Nabiki sent a corresponding spurt of energy into his core's void, slowing filling it. Eager for more, he picked up the pace, to Nabiki's delight. She began reciprocating thrust for thrust, giving out little gasps and mews of pleasure each time their hips smacked together. Her eyes rolled back in her head, then her back arched and she screamed out Ranma's name as all higher thought vanished in a climax that dwarfed anything she'd experienced before. Her scream was again joined by a roar from Ranma as the explosion of energy exploded into him, overfilling his core's void and radiating out. He collapsed on top of Nabiki, then rolled to the side onto his back.

Nabiki was barely aware of this, as she lay shuddering. Slowly, her scattershot thoughts started to again come together; as something nagged at her — something wrong with what she was seeing, or rather _how_ she was seeing. Was the room brighter ... ? Wearily, she rolled her head to the side, looking at her personal perpetual pleasure machine, then stared in shock. "Ranma, why are you glowing?"

Her question seemed to echo through Ranma's mind, as if from a distance. Slowly, his thoughts resurfaced from the depths that explosion of energy had driven them to. "Huh? Whazzat?" he muttered blearily, and turned his head to gaze at his lover's features, clearly visible in the light filling the room. Then the memory of what they'd just done, unclouded by need, exploded into his mind.


	6. Fallout

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

Kasumi moved about the kitchen preparing breakfast, her body on autopilot as she listened to the normal morning sounds — the rustling from her father in the family room reading the morning paper, Akane in the furo cleaning up from her morning run. She frowned slightly at the sound she wasn't hearing, Nabiki stumbling down the stairs for her morning wake-up coffee. _Her alarm went off fifteen minutes ago, where is that girl?_ Normally Nabiki was the sensible one, outside of her streak of paranoia and side-hobby of summoning imps and worthy blackmail, but things were rapidly spinning out of control. _I know Nabiki said that nothing was going on between her and that nature spirit — boy, rather — and it didn't look like anything had happened when I checked on them when I got up, but she hasn't been acting as she usually does and there was that scent ..._

She sighed and, hearing Akane leaving the furo, put the finishing touches on the breakfast plates for her father and younger sister, plastered her normal oblivious smile on her face, and left the kitchen for the family room, carrying Soun and Akane's breakfasts and Akane's bento. As usual, she arrived just as Akane came around the corner dressed for school and carrying her backpack and preceded her in to sit down at the table.

Akane looked around. "Where's Nabiki?"

"Nabiki hasn't gotten up yet. Isn't it wonderful that she is finally sleeping better?" Kasumi gushed.

Akane looked suspiciously toward the ceiling for a moment, then started to rise. "She's going to be late for school, I'd better get her up."

Kasumi hurriedly moved toward the doorway. "Oh, that won't be necessary! You have to get to school, too, and your breakfast will get cold. You just eat your breakfast and I'll see to Nabiki."

Akane stared at the doorway her older sister had just left through for a moment. _That was a bit hasty for Kasumi. Are she and Nabiki hiding something?_ Finally, she shrugged to herself, sat back down, and started eating. _Whatever it is, it can't be too serious, not if Kasumi hasn't brought it up to Dad yet._

Kasumi hurried up the stairs, then paused outside Nabiki's door and listened for a long moment. Not hearing anything, she sighed in relief and firmly knocked on the door.

"AAAAAHHH! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!"

Kasumi jumped back against the corridor wall at the scream that answered her knock. _What the hell?! That was Ranma!_ Quickly, she threw open Nabiki's door and rushed into the room, only to freeze at the sight of the naked redhead floating in the middle of the room curled into a ball, a continual mantra of "I'msorryI'mnotlikehim, I'msorryI'mnotlikehim" streaming from the balled-up boy, ah, girl, ah, nature spirit. Confused, Kasumi glanced over at her middle sister sitting up in her bed _(f__ully clothed, thank you!__)_ and staring at her friend, a look of confusion ... and was that guilt? ... on her face. "Nabiki, what's wrong with Ranma?" Kasumi asked cautiously.

Nabiki absentmindedly shook her head as she continued to stare at Ranma. "I'm not sure …" she said uncertainly, then shook herself out of her own shock and turned toward her older sister. "Kasumi, there's no way Dad and Akane didn't hear that scream downstairs, and Akane at least will be on her way up here right now. You have to stop her from coming up — tell her I had a nightmare."

"And Ranma?"

Nabiki turned troubled eyes back to the human-appearing floating ball still chanting her mantra. "I think maybe I know what's wrong, I'll deal with Ranma. But I think I'll be missing school today, call them for me?"

Kasumi nodded. "Certainly, sister." She turned and hurried back down the hall, meeting Akane at the head of the stairs.

"Kasumi, what was that?!" Akane demanded breathlessly.

"Nabiki had a nightmare," Kasumi responded serenely, "she'll be fine, she's just a little shaken and wants privacy."

Akane glanced around her sister and down the hall. "Are you sure? That didn't sound much like Nabiki."

"Yes," Kasumi said firmly, "she'll be fine. And when was the last time you heard Nabiki scream? Now let's finish breakfast and get you off to school, Nabiki is going to be a little late."

"Okay ..." Akane said reluctantly, and headed back down the stairs. Kasumi glanced back down the hall herself, then followed her sister.

/\

As Kasumi hurried from the bedroom, Nabiki gazed exasperatedly (with a large dollop of guilt) at the panicked (but cute) redhead on display, curled into a ball and floating in the middle of the room and still chanting her mantra. _This is getting to be a habit. Still, if his problem's what I think it is, I can't say I blame him. Face it, girl, you screwed up big time._ Remembering the last time, Nabiki got out of bed and, rather than trying to talk Ranma down, simply caught that convenient foot again and pulled Ranma into her arms (carefully, also remembering getting knocked on her ass).

Ranma tried to tighten up even further. "Don't touch me!"

"Why not?" Nabiki asked as gently as she could while walking back to sit on her bed with Ranma again in her lap. "You need help, and you're my friend."

Ranma uncurled a bit and looked up at her. "We're still friends? Even after I … I forced … forced you …"

_Bingo! Got it in one._ Nabiki wiped some tears away from Ranma's upturned face with a thumb and grinned down at her. "Hey, kiddo, we didn't do anything that I didn't want to do. If anything, my only problem is that it didn't last long enough."

Ranma stared. "Really? Ya mean it, ya aren't just tryin' ta make me feel better?"

"Every word," Nabiki confirmed with a nod. "Tell me, had you ever seen what I was wearing? What about the room we were in?"

Ranma shook her head. "No, I never seen either of 'em before."

"Well, the lingerie I was wearing is over there in my wardrobe," nodding to her right, "and that room was the king's bedroom at the palace of Versailles. Last night wasn't the first time I've been there in my dreams, either — just the best." Nabiki leered at Ranma and was heartened to see her cuddled friend blush a little. "I brought more to that dream than you did, and enjoyed every minute of it, so don't go beating yourself up over it."

Ranma shook her head. "Maybe you were willin', but I was still out a' control. I didn't even think a' what was happenin' 'til it was all over."

"But you _didn't_ know what was happening," Nabiki responded. "Now that you do, you should be able to control yourself, maybe even not join my dream."

Ranma stiffened. "Ya mean it was _my_ fault we were in the same dream?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't anything _I_ did," Nabiki said with a chuckle. "No, much as I'd like to be able to do that, I suspect it's an aspect of whatever kind of nature spirit you are. Tonight, we find out if you can stay out of my dreams, or control yourself if you can't."

Ranma stared up at her. "You mean you still want me to sleep with you? But what if I can't control myself?"

"Then we have another wonderful night," Nabiki purred. "But as much as I'd like that, I doubt it'll happen."

Ranma blushed, and finally relaxed and uncurled enough to straighten a bit, laying her head on Nabiki's shoulder. Nabiki rearranged her hold to keep her arms around the busty spirit without touching anything remotely sexual. For a time they simply sat, but finally Nabiki's curiosity grew stronger than she could ignore. "Ranma, who aren't you like?"

"Huh? What're ya talkin' about?"

"While you were floating up there, you kept repeating 'I'm sorry, I'm not like him'. I figure the 'I'm sorry' was an apology, but who is 'him'?"

"Oh, my pop," Ranma responded nonchalantly.

"Your father is a rapist!?" Nabiki all but shouted.

"No, no! He is a womanizer, though. Half the money he steals or cheats out a' people goes to whores, what doesn't go to fill his fat belly. He tries to get me to be just like him, too — tried to set me up with a whore as a 'birthday present' when I turned fourteen, an' a couple a' times since." Ranma's voice turned bitter. " 'Fore then, I didn't even know when my birthday was, or how old I was."

Nabiki had stiffened in outrage, and it was a few minutes before she trusted her voice. Finally she was able to ask, "Does your father have any good points, and why do you stay with that bastard?"

Ranma thought for a moment. "Well, he really is a good martial artist — some a' his ideas for trainin' are screwy, but he's taught me a lot. And he really does believe in a martial artist's duty to protect the weak. I've seen him drop a bag a' loot to help people that needed it. 'Course, he stole every yen on 'em when they were safe, but they _were_ safe." She shrugged as she added, "An' I stick with him because, well, where else can I go? Pop may be a lazy, greedy, lyin', cheatin', thievin', womanizin' waste a' space, but he's all I got."

Nabiki's arms tightened. "No, he isn't, not anymore. Now, you have me — and Kasumi too, though she may not show it through that China doll act of hers. We just need to figure out how to make that mean something. We're too young to become your legal guardians ourselves, but maybe Dad …" Her voice died off in thought, then she shook herself. "But that's for later, right now we need to figure out what we're going to do with the rest of the day."

/oOo\

Nabiki sighed in contentment as she sank into the warm water of the furo. _Oh, that feels good! The only thing that would make this better is a certain redhead cutie joining me! Except with the warm water it wouldn't be the cutie, it would be a certain black-haired, well-hung hunk._ Remembering the trip the two shared down to the furo after their talk/cuddle, Nabiki sighed again, this time in mild exasperation. _I really hope I was imagining Ranma's body consciousness — it's going to get inconvenient if Ranma starts trying to _not_ see naked people, or let people see him — uh, her, as if they could. Damn, the pronouns are confusing. He certainly was a hunk in the dream last night, though._ Nabiki's expression turned dreamy for a moment as the memory of the dream played through her mind again, then she frowned. _Still, as much fun as it was, leaving aside the way Ranma freaked afterward it was a bit … odd. Ranma said he was 'out of control', whatever that means, and what was up with that glowing —_ Nabiki stiffened as a thought struck her. _That glow didn't really hit until _the tail end_ of the sex — this could be seriously bad. Looks like I got one more thing to research when I get back online._

Suddenly, the redhead Nabiki was finding such delight in watching (and daydreaming about) popped back into existence, floating beside the furo. Ranma looked around, saw Nabiki almost neck-deep in clear if steaming water, and blushed and twisted her hips a little so that Nabiki couldn't see the small bush that proved her red hair was natural. Nabiki sighed to herself. _Damn, his — her, damn it — body consciousness wasn't my imagination. Well, I'll just have to do something about it._ Ignoring Ranma's possibly unconscious attempt at modesty, Nabiki asked, "Ranma, I thought you insisted you needed to spend the day with your father to keep him from getting too suspicious, what's up with the quick return?"

Ranma chuckled and tugged slightly on her pigtail. "Ah, it's drizzling in China, no way I'm gonna be able ta hang around there."

Nabiki quirked an eyebrow and chuckled herself as she got out of the furo and grabbed a towel. "Okay, I guess we're going with my plan after all. Let me get dressed and grab my laptop and we'll head over to the park."

Blushing deeply, Ranma gulped at the sight of the water running off of the body he'd enjoyed so much in last night's dream ... Ranma quickly turned away and flew toward the ceiling. "Sure, I'll, uh, um, wait fer ya in yer room."

Sighing more deeply, Nabiki just shook her head as she finished drying off and started getting dressed. _That is _really_ going to be a hassle if she doesn't get over it. Well, let's see if time will take care of it._

/oOo\

Whatever it was like in China, it was a nice sunny afternoon in Nerima, where Nabiki was sitting on a shaded park bench with her laptop open on her lap while Ranma practiced on the nearby open lawn. Nabiki wasn't enjoying the day much, though.

Nabiki growled with frustration as she shut down the website on Japanese nature spirits. _Nothing! Nothing for China, Korea, Vietnam, nothing that really matches Ranma. Damn it, Ranma, where did your template come from? Ah, well, at least I've had better luck with your mother if not your 'pop'._

Her frown disappeared to be replaced by a happy and more than somewhat lascivious smile as she turned slightly to watch Ranma running through katas. _At least the scenery's nice — that cute face, those firm breasts —_ She shook herself a little as she turned her gaze away. _Down, girl! Ranma's already body-conscious enough without you drooling over her — give it some time …_

She turned her gaze back to Ranma and watched her friend flow through the latest kata, forcing herself to ignore all those tantalizing anatomical details … and frowned thoughtfully — something was nagging at her, something about the kata … Then she had it, Ranma's kata didn't seem to take into account the fact that she was floating in the air instead of planted on the ground. Nabiki closed down and set aside her laptop, then called out and waved to Ranma, motioning her over when she caught the redhead's attention.

"Hey Nabiki, what's up?" the now perky redhead asked as she floated over on full display, her gaze only slightly averted and locked on Nabiki's face.

_Good, she's — he's — she's, damn it. She's starting to relax again,_ Nabiki though to herself. "Ranma, I think there might be a problem with your katas. These are katas you're adapting to when you're floating, right?"

"Yeah," Ranma agreed, nodding agreement. "Most a' what I know doesn't work without bein' on the ground. I've been workin' on adaptin' the Art ta flyin'."

"But you haven't been actually sparring with anyone while in your spirit form, have you?"

Ranma frowned thoughtfully, then chuckled at a fond memory. "No, not really, outside a' beatin' on Pop when we first got cursed. Don't really have anyone ta spar with, actually. The only one around is Pop and he can't see me. And even if that wasn't a problem I don't want him ta know I turn into a girl and there's no way ta hide that in a good spar."

Nabiki laughed at the thought of Genma getting a beating from someone he couldn't see. "From what you've said, I can't say I blame you for the beating. But you still need to find some way to practice that lets you know how hard you're actually hitting. Maybe practicing on trees? Anyway, it's time for me to head home and maybe you should see if it's still raining in China."

Ranma sighed and shrugged. "It's been nice here, but I guess you're right. Not like I can't spend more time here tomorrow or the next day. Can't say I'm lookin' forward ta Pop's company after spendin' time with you, though."

Nabiki lightly blushed and found herself choked up a bit. Keeping her face straight and forcing her throat clear, she managed to get out, "Thanks, Ranma, I appreciate it." She quickly turned to pack up her laptop, and as they strolled/floated back toward the dojo she added nonchalantly, "Still, I bet you're going to be looking forward to getting something to eat."

"Naw," Ranma replied, glancing at a passing teenaged schoolgirl then looking away with a faint blush. "I haven't been hungry all day. Odd, really, now that ya mention it."

Nabiki winced slightly but covered it up with a shrug. "Probably something to do with your spirit nature. We'll figure it out."

/\

A very confused imp slipped through the trees and bushes lining the park sidewalk, shadowing the summoner and her bound spirit — at least, Gorash _thought_ the naked redhead floating alongside Nabiki was her bound spirit. _This is extremely strange. The succubus isn't task-bound, unless she's supposed to be a bodyguard, and her body language is all wrong for that. Besides, who's going to bind a _succubus_ as a bodyguard? Of course, _this_ succubus is an obvious master of unarmed combat, and how did that happen? Too bad I couldn't risk getting close enough to listen in. But if she isn't task bound that leaves personal binding, and the body language is all wrong for that, too. Besides, the master/familiar link isn't there, either. At least _that_ isn't a surprise — unlike the status-obsessed, hormone-driven moron that 'assigned' me to this job, Nabiki will want a better familiar than one of those sex-obsessed bimbos. Only _this_ succubus isn't acting like a sex-obsessed bimbo, just the opposite._

Gorash sighed as the two girls left the park and turned toward the dojo. _Great, another long evening and night staring at a house. This is getting old fast, and I can't return to my so-called master yet because I only have the succubus's use name._ Then the imp brightened at a sudden thought. _I can't return to Gosunkugi yet, but _Mara_ will want to know about this. I'll just wait until after Nabiki's bedroom light goes out for the night, then drop in to headquarters and make a quick report._

/oOo\

Kasumi looked up with a bright, slightly oblivious smile as Nabiki walked into the kitchen, and the middle Tendo chuckled and shook her head at her older sister. "You can relax the act, sis, Dad and Akane aren't around and I'm afraid with me your cover's well and truly blown."

Kasumi's smile turned genuine if somewhat rueful and she echoed Nabiki's chuckle. "You make a good point, little sis." Turning serious, she asked, "Ranma's back in China?"

Nabiki nodded, also turning serious. "Yeah, Ranma needs some face time with his father before he comes back here at nightfall, help keep his suspicions down."

Kasumi sighed at that, and Nabiki frowned. "All right, Kasumi, out with it. What's bothering you about Ranma?"

Kasumi stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and smiled ruefully. "With her personally, nothing — she seems like a sweet if not exactly, well, socially skilled girl. It's just that …" Kasumi paused and stared at the wall for a moment, then screwed up her courage, put down the kitchen knife, and turned to face her younger sister. "Nabiki, you're bisexual, aren't you? Your relationship with Ranma isn't just friendship."

Nabiki looked away for a moment, then turned back. "You've got it half-right. Yes, I'm bisexual, not that I've ever acted on it outside of dreams, and Ranma's spirit form is cute as a button — I wouldn't mind taking her to bed for more than sleep at all. But our relationship _is_ just friendship, because Ranma really is a boy, whatever he — she — looks like when she's here …" she grimaced, "… sooner or later I'll figure out the pronouns. Anyway, however much _I_ might like to drag Ranma off to bed, _Ranma_ isn't willing — too honorable, too ignorant, maybe too repressed, I'm seriously considering taking up the Art again just so I can lay a beatdown on Genma Saotome if I ever meet him."

"Genma is Ranma's father?"

"Yeah." Nabiki waved a hand at Kasumi's doubtful look. "I know, I know, there's no way I could match his skill without years of study, maybe decades. But I can dream, right?"

Kasumi smiled wistfully, her eyes getting a distant look. "Yes, Nabiki, dreams are good." Then her eyes sharpened and returned to Nabiki's face. "In that case, what was this morning all about?"

"Uh, well, that is …" Nabiki paused and took a deep, steadying breath. "That _was_ about sex, but not exactly voluntary — at least on Ranma's part." She leaned back against the counter, arms clasped across her stomach, and gazed thoughtfully at the wall. "Last night, Ranma and I shared a dream — a _highly_ erotic one — and let me tell you, Ranma as a guy is as much a hunk as he is cute as a girl. This morning was Ranma's reaction to that dream when we woke up."

Kasumi frowned thoughtfully, then turned to resume cutting up the vegetables for the night's dinner. "I see why you say Ranma isn't likely to be willing to be part of a sexual relationship. But why would the two of you share a dream, and why was it erotic if Ranma isn't willing?"

"Because of what kind of nature spirit Ranma is, sis. I wasted a lot of time this afternoon trying to figure out exactly what kind of spirit Ranma is, but the general type is obvious — a sex spirit of some kind. Last night was Ranma's new instincts coming out."

Kasumi froze for a moment, then resumed chopping. "A sex spirit? And you're going to still be sharing a bed tonight?"

"Yeah, we need to see if Ranma can keep from joining my dreams now that we know what's going on, and if we can keep from having sex if he does. Ranma needs to learn to control her new instincts, and there's only one way to do that — practice."

"I suppose so … you are sure that Ranma's a sex spirit, and not some other kind? What happened in the dream could simply have been repressed desire on his part and not-so-repressed desire on yours."

Nabiki grinned, but shook her head. "I'm sure. It wasn't just how erotic the dream was, sis, there were some other oddities as well — in the dream Ranma was literally _glowing_ by the time it ended, and she didn't get hungry at all today — he was _feeding_. Yes, even if I can't find the specific type in any sources for China or Japan, or even Vietnam or Korea, Ranma's a sex spirit. I just hope it doesn't break him when he finds out."

"So you haven't told her yet?"

"Not a chance, not until I can give him some more details besides 'you're a female sex spirit, have fun'."

"I suppose that is for the best. So the day's study was a waste, outside of learning what Ranma isn't?"

Nabiki brightened up and grinned. "Nope, I also did some research on Ranma's parents. I wasn't able to find anything on his father but I have an idea on how to change that, and his mother is another matter. Saotome Nodoka — she's a major player at kendo tournaments, came out of nowhere about five years ago and leaped to the top ranks. When she's not beating people up in tournaments, she does very well in antiquities — besides selling them she gets called in for appraisals and when people are worried about forgeries."

"Oh, good, I'm sure Ranma was so happy to learn about that!"

Nabiki winced. "Uh, no, not exactly."

Kasumi stared at her sister in shock. "Ranma wasn't happy to learn about her mother?"

"No, I haven't told her." At Kasumi's disapproving frown, Nabiki hastily added, "Look, his father is a complete waste of space. Before I get Ranma's hopes up I want to learn if his mother is any better, and how good she is at appraising antiques or using a katana isn't going to tell me that."

Kasumi's frown deepened, but finally she nodded reluctant agreement. "I suppose so. How are you going to learn what she's like?"

"I'm not really sure. I can't just summon an imp and send it off to investigate, I'd need to actually use the information collected for blackmail or take on some karmic debt to a demon, no matter how weak, and neither are exactly good ideas. I suppose I could summon one of the nature spirits I used to use." Nabiki grinned ruefully. "Could you use a new flower bed?"

Kasumi giggled, but shook her head. "Not at the moment, no, but I have a better idea. Remember, I still have some friends among the nature spirits I used to play with, and a few still remind me on occasion that they owe me a favor. Why don't we wait until one of them drops by and ask it to investigate 'Auntie' Saotome for us?"

Nabiki thought about it for a moment, then shrugged reluctant agreement. "Why not? I don't really like waiting, but it isn't as if we have some sort of deadline. Anyway, dinner smells really good and I'm a bit sweaty from being in the sun today, so I'll go get cleaned up."

Kasumi smiled as Nabiki left the kitchen for the furo, then frowned thoughtfully as her hands went onto autopilot, thinking over the just-ended conversation. _I'm still not sure I like this, Nabiki sharing a bed with a sex spirit, even a sexually repressed one, but I suppose we have no real choice. I wonder what Ranma actually looks like? Too bad Nabiki isn't an artist … ah, well, Ranma's too young anyway. Maybe someday …_ And as happened so often, while her body went through the motions needed to prepare dinner her thoughts turned to a daydream of a new life outside of the dojo, with a handsome, gentle young doctor.

/oOo\

With a deep sigh of relief, Nodoka walked slowly through her front door and flipped on the light. Completely inventorying the stock in her antiquities warehouse was never fun, but it had to be done regularly. At least it was over. Considering her upbringing, it was usually fairly easy work, and at least it slowed the decline in her finances.

Changing into house slippers, she flipped through the day's mail. _Nothing from the investigation agency — no surprise there, their last report was that they'd lost track of Genma and my son when they left Japan for China months ago. They're going to have to reacquire the trail all over again whenever they get back, and then probably only when Genma once again brings himself to the attention of the police. But at least while Genma's in China he won't be adding to the stack of bills from creditors and victims of his scams._

Turning from the mail, Nodoka headed for her bedroom, where she changed from her business attire into clothes suitable for a workout in her own private dojo. She performed some warm-up exercises and then took up a bokken and started her nightly practice in Kendo and Kenjutsu.

As her body relaxed into the familiar rhythm, flowing from one kata to another, her mind followed its own well-worn pattern, remembering her time with her son and the man she'd loved. _What happened to you Genma? The training trip was going so well, you were calling regularly, you'd been back home three times in the first year, well within the agreed-to visit every three to six months, you were drawing money from our bank account as needed, and then … nothing. No contact, no visit, no money being withdrawn … and then the visits from the police looking for you for petty thefts and scams, and the lawyers of the victims looking for compensation, not to mention the families of all the fiancées wondering where the boy promised to their daughters had gotten to. It's as if the good man almost ruined by 'Master' Happosai, that I helped recover and rebuild from the wreckage, never existed!_

Finally tired enough that she'd _probably_ be able to sleep through the night, Nodoka cleaned up and had a small evening meal, then paused on the way from the kitchen to the bedroom to open the glass case in the hallway. She ignored the trophies from her tournament victories it contained and instead focused on the photograph in the center, above an envelope containing the shredded remains of a seppuku contract. The picture was of a younger Nodoka and a six-year-old Ranma holding a kitten, both smiling for the camera — only remnants of Genma were visible, the rest cut away.

Reaching out a shaking hand, Nodoka gently touched the photograph. _Soon — soon the ten years for the training trip will be over, and Genma will _have_ to bring my son back to me, or my investigators will catch him. He can't keep running forever. And when we _do_ meet he had better have a very, very good explanation for why he broke his word and returned to his old ways, or he will regret it for the short time he survives!_

Sighing, she closed the case and headed for her bedroom, hoping that the night would be one of the good ones, with dreams of the happy times over a decade earlier, or of the hoped-for future to come. _Soon, my son will return. Soon. Please, let it be soon!_


	7. Meanwhile, back in China

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

* * *

As was customary, the governing council of the Joketsuzoku sat on stools in a half-circle around the warrior reporting to it. As was _not_ customary, in this case the reporting warrior was also seated on a stool, though the warrior standing behind a Klensur almost exhausted to the point of incoherence, the warrior's hands on her shoulders helping her keep her seat instead of spilling onto the floor, showed why in this case the stool was necessary.

"… and so we returned to the village to report while Xian Pu and Harbrus continued the pursuit of her husband," Klensur slurred out, then slumped back with relief against her supporter.

"Our thanks for your report," Ku Lon said, "and for your heroic efforts to bring it to us so quickly — that was very well done. Are there any questions?" she asked, looking around at her fellow council members. When no response came back, she turned back to the near-fainting warrior. "Since there are no questions, go and get something to eat and some sleep." With a smile, "That husband of yours will be more than happy to give you the pampering you deserve."

Klensur climbed wearily to her feet, then was saved from falling on her face when she attempted to bow to the council by the warrior behind her. With a stammered and slurred thanks for the praise, she stumbled out of the chamber, arm over her supporter's shoulder.

As Klensur left, Ku Lon's eyes swept across her fellow councilors. "There it is, the report of the Jusenkyo guide was accurate — there _is_ a boy as that fat fool claimed."

"However, the guide said that the boy also had a Jusenkyo curse, if a rare one," responded Pad Zum, "which means that your great-granddaughter will not be able to avoid her marriage as she undoubtedly hopes."

"Normally true," Ku Lon agreed, "except for the anomaly she reported of the boy appearing out of thin air. Remember, it wasn't a case of him being present but invisible until the curse was reversed — one moment he wasn't there and the next he was, the curse apparently reversed without the use of hot water. Even if the boy is not the mage Xian Pu suspects, there is still something unusual going on." Looking around, Ku Lon found most of the rest of the council nodding thoughtfully and inwardly sighed with relief, though her stern expression was unchanged.

"So what do you suggest?" asked Pad Zum.

"That I and two other Elders, along with six warriors and their husbands, join Xian Pu in her hunt. That will be the minimum number of Elders needed to make a ruling in Xian Pu's case, and a sufficient number of warriors to bring her errant husband back to the village if the decision goes against her."

Dao Paz glanced sharply at Ku Lon. "And which Elders do you suggest should join you?"

"I think Lo Shun ... and you, for the other," said Ku Lon, then chuckled at the expression of surprise Dao Paz was unable to keep off her face. "After all, I wouldn't want the council to think I was biasing the decision in my great-granddaughter's favor. With only three Elders a unanimous decision will be required to relieve Xian Pu of her married status, and no one is going to accuse _you_ if being in my camp in this matter."

"That is true," Dao Paz admitted with a slight, sardonic smile.

"Besides, both you and Lo Shun can speak Japanese, and that will be important in this case. At least one of each of the six couples that accompany us will need to speak it as well. Also, Pa Fum should join us."

Now, the rest of the council was staring at Ku Lon in bewilderment. "Japanese? Pa Fum?" Lo Shun asked.

Ku Lon nodded. "Remember, Japanese is the language the fat panda was speaking, and with their almost straight-line travel east he and his son are most likely headed home. As well, that's where we are most likely to find that umbrella-wielding outsider that Pa Fum was beaten by and had to give the Kiss of Marriage."

Dao Paz frowned thoughtfully. "From the way his trail vanished from one step to the next as well as the magical traces, that boy was a Wanderer — he could be anywhere in the world. What makes you think he can be found in Japan?"

Ku Lon shrugged. "I can't say for certain, of course, but one place is as good as another. Besides, after he defeated Pa Fum and escaped I read the accounts we have of the few Wanderers that have married into the tribe and, as I remembered, while their wanderings can range worldwide they seem to have a center — a place or person that their travels bring them back to every few weeks or months. Since he was ranting in Japanese, something about it all being Ranma's fault, whoever that is, that is where that center is most likely to be found. Besides," she added, "Pa Fum can't put off her year-long husband search for more than another week, and this way she'll have a group of fellow Amazons watching out for her on her quest."

"True enough," Dao Paz said, nodding in agreement. "Pa Fum can definitely use some keepers; she is growing into one of our finest healers but is no warrior and her shyness would probably get her killed or worse if she journeyed Outside alone. What was she thinking?" she lamented with a sigh.

"You know Pa Fum," Fun Hao spoke up, "she may be practically useless in a real fight, but threaten children and she'll be all over you with great enthusiasm, if little skill. In retrospect it's obvious the Wanderer wasn't threatening those children, but that's what she thought at the time."

"And so we have this mess," Dao Paz grumped.

"Yes, we do," Ku Lon agreed. "But at least this gives us the chance to get Pa Fum through this mess alive. Now, for the six warriors and their husbands, I suggest …"

/oOo\

Xian Pu and Harbrus stood in stunned silence on the shore, watching as the light from the setting sun illuminated a panda swimming out to sea, pushing a jerrybuilt raft ahead of it. Finally, Harbrus shook herself clear of her shock and asked, "Where on earth does he think he's going?"

"I'd say Japan, what else is out there?" Xian Pu growled, and turned back into the forest, slamming one of her maces into a tree trunk in frustration.

Harbrus gawked at the younger girl for a moment, then hurried to catch up. "This just keeps getting better and better. So, what do we do now?"

Xian Pu paused and leaned against a tree while she thought. Finally, she nodded to herself and said, "Only one thing for it, we'll have to go with a variation of what we're already doing." Reaching into her pouch, she took out the tracking stone paired with the one she'd given Klensur and handed it to Harbrus. Then she opened up a pocket on her backpack and pulled out another pair of tracking stones and handed one of them to Harbrus as well, putting the other in her pouch. "You hold on to these, they'll let the others find you when they come looking and follow me. Give me your share of our money, and I'll give you my share of the food. I haven't seen any sign of people around here, so you'll wait here for the others, and I'll head up along the coast looking for a boat that can get me to Japan."

Harbrus frowned uncertainly. "Are you sure? This is turning more into a husband quest than a husband hunt. What if the Elders accompanying the party decide not to follow you?"

With a shrug, Xian Pu nonchalantly responded, "Then they don't follow. I keep following the boy and my husband ***shudder*** and if they settle down I mail a letter to the village with the location. If they don't, I keep following them until the year's up and come home."

"I suppose there isn't really an alternative," Harbrus muttered reluctantly, turned to her backpack to dig out her funds while Xian Pu separated out her share of the food, then watched as her younger friend disappeared into the dusk's shadows before setting up her own camp for the night.

/oOo\

Ku Lon sat in her hut, staring at the light from her meditation lamp's flame reflecting from the blade of the old Bowie knife she held. _Well, Jason, sixty years, and still as shiny and sharp as the day you gave it to me — and over thirty years since I travelled to Japan to meet your son at the US base. Your grandson isn't there right now, but maybe if he can get some time free from his military duties he can come down from Korea's DMZ to visit. It would be nice to meet the man I've been corresponding with these past two decades._ With a wistful sigh, she put the blade on the table beside the lamp. _Those men have done you proud, Jason, and I hope wherever you are you know that._

"So why do you disturb an old woman's rest, Dao Paz?" she asked without turning to face her silent visitor. "Not to mention that you should be resting yourself. The weeks ahead will be hard ones, even for us."

Unseen, Dao Paz shook her head with mild wonder. "All these centuries, and I still can't sneak up on you."

Ku Lon snorted. "You weren't able to sneak up on me when we were unblooded would-be warriors, and nothing's changed since — the day you can surprise me is the day I retire." Turning on her stool, she gazed at her lifelong rival. "I doubt you are here for a friendly chat about old times, so again — why the visit?"

Unbidden, Dao Paz pulled over another stool. She sat and stared back for a moment, then shrugged. "All right, straight to the point. What are you up to, Ku Lon?"

_Damn! I was afraid of that. That's the downside of having a competent rival. Ah, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained._ "What do you mean?"

"I mean, the choices you suggested for our accompanying warriors were interesting ones, the ones I would have said were most likely to be lost to us through wanderlust and a thirst to explore the Outside. Yes, they can all speak Japanese, and so can some of their husbands, but there are others more — dedicated to our traditions, shall we say? — that can speak Japanese just as well. And with the three least, ah, _traditional_ members of the council watching over them …" At Ku Lon's sharp glance Dao Paz shrugged. "Yes, I include myself in that group, for all that we've been rivals all these decades. Anyway, the less charitable might think you are trying to lose us some of our finest warriors to the blandishments of the Outside, perhaps out of misplaced sympathy for their daydreams."

"And is that what you believe?" Ku Lon asked softly.

Dao Paz shook her head. "No, never. However much we may have competed with each other, your loyalty to the tribe is unshakeable, and you know as well as I do that we need every warrior. Whatever you are up to, it isn't giving some of those needed warriors a chance to disappear into the Outside. So what is it?"

Ku Lon gave her old rival a long measuring look, then nodded. "Very well. You are right that we need every warrior, but we don't necessarily need them _here_. Or at least, not _just_ here." She paused for a long moment, then at Dao Paz's questioning look continued. "Remember, I was the one that delivered Jason MacKenzie's dog tags to the American forces in Japan after the Second World War. I saw firsthand what the United States did to the cities of Japan, how powerful the nations on the Outside have grown. And from my correspondence with his son and grandson as well as what I saw on my trip thirty years ago, I know they have only grown more powerful since. We have been able to continue the traditions we hold to so proudly, keep our independence, only because we are in a backwater distant from the mandarins in Beijing and any of their closer supporters, with nothing here of interest to them. But that could change at any time and all our vaunted skill in combat and with Chi would be useless against a single flight of bombers."

"So you are seeking to establish a new tribe in Japan."

"Let's just say, if circumstances permit I want to be ready."

Dao Paz stared thoughtfully at Ku Lon for a minute, then took a deep breath and nodded. "You are right about needing to set up somewhere else, though the more traditional members of the Council might call it treason. But it will be very difficult to hold to our traditions in the Outside, especially for our men. Why not simply move farther away?"

Ku Lon shrugged. "Farther away _where_, exactly? The world has gotten to be a very small place, we are as far from the centers of power as we can get right now. Anywhere more distant would require moving to another continent entirely, and how are we supposed to accomplish that? Besides, we ought to change some of our more outdated traditions at any rate, if we do succeed in setting up a sister tribe in Japan it will simply make it mandatory." At Dao Paz's gasp, Ku Lon gave a sharp laugh. "Oh, come now! Surely you've suspected my feelings in this regard for some time."

Well, yes," Dao Paz admitted. "I just never expected you to say it so clearly. It was that American flyer, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Ku Lon agreed. "At least, Jason MacKenzie started it. He may not have had our warriors' skill in close combat, but his courage and honor were a match for any of them. And the skills he _did_ have working with the explosives from his crashed transport saved our village even while costing him his life. My continuing correspondence with his descendants has simply increased my feelings in this regard — if those men can become such magnificent warriors, why not our own men?"

Dao Paz shrugged in turn. "I can't say I'm convinced, but perhaps this trip will make the case one way or the other. As for a new tribe — the problem is a real one, but I'm not sure this is the best solution. Still, I'll keep my silence and we'll see what happens; if conditions in Japan aren't right it'll be a moot point anyway, and we'll have to come up with something else."

Ku Lon managed to keep herself from sagging with relief at her successful gamble, limiting herself to a slight nod. "My thanks."

"No need to thank me; we both have the best interests of the tribe at heart, even when we disagree. And who knows? You may be right." Rising from the stool, Dao Paz moved toward the door. "Well, it's late, and as you said the next few weeks will be hard ones. A good night to you, my old enemy."

"And to you," Ku Lon replied as she watched her leave, then blew out the meditation lamp and headed for bed.


	8. One Day More: Morning

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

As with natural species, supernatural species have followed in the wake of the migrations of peoples that have been so much a part of the modern world. However, supernatural species have operated under constraints that natural species haven't. Natural species were often imported by colonists and immigrants, especially the domesticated varieties, of course, but even the non-domesticated varieties. None of the Awakened has copied with supernatural species the Sleeper that imported every bird mentioned in Shakespeare's plays and placed them in Central Park in New York City, for example.

And there are further constraints on the spread of supernatural species, likely a part of their nature in currently unknown ways. For instance, the dwarves of Scandinavia and the ban-sidhe of Ireland seem bound to their geographical locations, the genii of the ancient Romans are bound to specific bloodlines, and succubae have had very limited success expanding beyond populations descended from Europeans...

But not all supernatural species are so limited, and in rare cases their nature works for them. The biggest success story when it comes to the migration of European supernatural species is the sprite. Once bound by mountain, desert, and ocean barriers to Europe and parts of northern Africa, sprites have followed European colonists and adventurers wherever they've wandered and even in many places exceeded them. The current thinking is that sprites' success can be attributed to their intelligence — in most parts of the world, supernatural species filling the same ecological niche were nonsentient, and so unable to compete with the sentient (if often flighty) sprites and quickly pushed aside when the European import arrived in their region.

A good example of this is Japan. Sprites are believed to have arrived there in the latter part of the 19th century after Japan was forced to open its doors to diplomatic and economic relations with the West, brought in with the living plants sprites need to survive, imported by the wives of diplomats and traders across the Pacific. They quickly covered all of the Japanese islands, in spite of efforts by the native Awakened to prevent their spread and even eradicate them in areas that they had already occupied. The sprites then spread from Japan to Korea and China, and can now be found throughout the entire Orient...

"The Migration Patterns of the Supernatural Species of Europe," a term paper by Hermione Granger

* * *

The next morning:

Nabiki slowly came awake, and glanced at the still-quiet alarm clock. _Hmm, earlier than usual—at least, than usual _now_, and isn't that wonderful?_ she thought with a sleepy smile as she considered the night's events, or rather non-events. _No sex, like the first few night, no adventures, like the last couple, no dreams I can remember at all, he did it!_

Then, as she slowly cleared her mind, she realized there was something missing. No Ranma. _Where is she?_ she thought, a spike of panic shooting through her. _She didn't go back to Genma, he's swimming back to Japan right now, and she doesn't have anywhere else to go..._

Nabiki quickly rose, threw on the previous day's clothes, and headed downstairs where, as expected, she found her older sister in the kitchen. "Kasumi, have you seen Akane this morning?" she asked as she walked in.

Kasumi glanced up from her breakfast preparations with a smile, then focused back on her work. "Of course, she's taking her morning run."

"Good," Nabiki replied, then in a lower tone, "Have you seen Ranma anywhere?"

Kasumi nodded. "Yes, she's in the dojo practicing. Though that is odd, now that you mention it — usually, she wakes up with you." Glancing thoughtfully over at Nabiki, she asked, "You two haven't had a fight or anything?"

Nabiki shook her head. "No, nothing like that. No dreams last night, either, at least none that I can remember. But I woke up alone, so I don't know if that's because Ranma managed to control herself or because I spent the night alone."

"Well, I'm at a stopping point for the moment, so why don't I show you some of the most absolutely _beautiful_ flowers that have bloomed in the yard and then you can talk to Ranma while I finish breakfast," Kasumi said in her old bubbly, slightly oblivious manner, making Nabiki start suspiciously.

"Okaayyy ..."

**/\**

As Nabiki and Kasumi walked out into the yard, Nabiki murmured, "Has one of your friends shown up?"

Kasumi nodded. "Yes, a sprite that played with me a lot while mother was alive. She's agreed to help us, but she wanted to meet you before she left."

"Meet me? Why?"

"I don't know, she said something about getting a 'look at you', why I don't know."

Suddenly, Nabiki found a six-inch tall slim girl with short blond hair and bumblebee wings hovering in front of her face — naturally blond at that, as the lack of so much as a stitch of clothing made obvious.

"Oh, wow, you're here!" the diminutive cutie bubbled. "And look at you! You're looking so much better now, all the reds and blues clearing up, the blacks and muddy greys fading away, you're even getting a little pink in there! That succubus in the dojo must be quite a hottie, huh?"

A gaping Nabiki started to blush, and Kasumi stifled a laugh. "Nabiki, this is Cherry Blossom. She's kind enough to agree to help us out."

"You betcha!" the sprite enthused as she circled Nabiki. "Gotta do something for all those _wonderful_ stories you told us. Besides, it sounds like fun! Ooh, Nabiki, that demon stench is even fading, you've been a good girl lately! But not _too_ good, I hope," Cherry Blossom added, flying up in front of the still-stunned girl and giving her a broad wink. "Well, it's been good to see you again, Nabiki, but now I have a job to do. To Juuban, up, up, and away!" And the little bundle of energy made manifest sped up and out of sight.

A moment later, Cherry Blossom was again hovering eye level with Nabiki, looking somewhat abashed. "Um, which way is Juuban?" Wordlessly, Nabiki pointed the way, and with a cheerful "Thanks!" the sprite was gone again.

Nabiki stared after the now vanished sprite until the sound of laughter brought her out of her daze. Turning, she found her normally calm, collected, even staid sister on her knees, arms across her stomach, laughing so hard she could barely keep from falling over completely and rolling on the ground. "Ohh ... you should ... have ... seen your ... face!" Kasumi managed to gasp out between peals of laughter.

Finally, Nabiki gave in to a chuckle of her own as she reached down to give Kasumi a hand up. "I suppose I was rather dumbstruck, there." Sobering, she turned her gaze back toward Juuban. "Please tell me that was an act!"

Finally toning down her laughter to chuckles, Kasumi shrugged. "That's the Cherry Blossom I've known for as long as I've known her, except ..." sobering, "... except just after mother died. When I was constantly breaking into tears from the pain, and completely overwhelmed by the workload and trying to be a mother to two sisters, she was there. It was like she was a completely different person, giving me a figurative shoulder to cry on, helping me with the housework — she's more mature than she acts." Giving a little chuckle, she added, "Not that that's hard. She's the one that taught me how to cook. Why she learned to begin with I don't know, she never actually ate ... I don't care what she says, Nabiki, no amount of storytelling equals what's she's done for me."

"For _us_, sis," Nabiki said, giving her older sister a quick hug, "and someday we'll figure out a way to pay her back."

"I don't think we can, little sis," Kasumi all but whispered, "but that's what friendship is really all about, isn't it?"

"I wouldn't know," Nabiki said with a shrug, "but I'd sure like to find out. C'mon, I'll talk with Ranma later, what say I help with breakfast?"

The two started to walk back into the house, when Nabiki froze. Kasumi took a few more steps, then turned around when she realized Nabiki wasn't alongside her anymore. "Nabiki?" she asked quietly.

Nabiki waved for silence. _There was something Cherry Blossom said, something important, what was it?_ As best she could she ran through her memory of their brief encounter, and then she had it. "Wait a minute, Cherry Blossom knew what kind of nature spirit Ranma is, she _said_ what type! What was it, ulubus? Sudulus? No, succubus!" A big grin broke out on her face as she focused again on her sister. "At last, I'll be able to give Ranma some real news! Sorry, sis, I'm going to have to skip helping with breakfast. In fact I'll skip breakfast, make me an extra-large bento, I'll be on my computer!"

"Certainly, Nabiki, I fully understand," Kasumi said to her sister's retreating back as she watched Nabiki rush back into the house, then glanced toward the dojo before turning to follow her sister. _I really hope she'll have some good news for you, you could use some and it would make her so happy._

/oOo\

Mara stalked down the hall toward her office, carefully ignoring how everyone she passed was carefully ignoring the smoke curling away from her charred clothing and singed hair. She kept her face expressionless even as anger, frustration and humiliation coiled and burned inside her.

Slamming open her door hard enough to crack its glass panel, she paused at the sight of her desk, reports piled in stacks, and groaned. She carefully shutg the door, walked over to the office chair behind the desk and flopped into it with a sigh.

_I just don't understand it. Hild's Breasts, how do they _do_ it?! One of Niflheim's best field operators, up against a romance-besotted clown that thinks there isn't a problem in the world her potions can't fix and a tech-obsessed kid with no power to speak of, both with serious impulse control problems, and their sister that sees the world through rose-colored glasses so dark it's amazing she can see at all — and still, every single time I come out looking like a complete idiot. Every single _time_!_

Sitting up, she started sorting through the reports with a rapid-fire triage of 'now irrelevant', 'review at your convenience', and 'read yesterday'. _I think Hild assigns me these little jobs with the Norns whenever I'm getting too full of myself. I'll have to remember not to do that in the future — though they do give me a chance to see Urd again._

For a moment, Mara's face softened and turned wistful, then she froze at the sight of a report with a stick-it note stuck to the cover with the name of Nabiki Tendo written on it. Quickly opening the folder, she started reading. _Yeesh, Gosunkugi really _is_ an idiot — fails to properly bargain or dominate the creatures he summons, gives impossible orders, I'll wager he accuses Gorash of being incompetent for being unable to read minds or sneak through Nabiki's wards. Ah, well, he's giving us a hold on his family, or will when daddy-dearest finds out what his precious son has been up to — and flubbing horribly._ Then she stiffened. _A sexually shy succubus skilled in the martial arts? How did that happen?_

Turning to her phone, she hit the speed dial and smiled at the face that appeared on the phone's screen. "Hey, Calise, good to see you. They take you off of field work?"

Calise smiled back and shrugged. "Just a vacation, a chance to get away from all the assholes for a few weeks."

"Good," Mara said with a smirk, "wouldn't want our second-best field agent to be retired."

"Ah, well," Calise said with a return smirk, "we can't all be as good as Amora. Hey, I hear you've had another encounter with the Terrible Trio. How'd it go?" A look of mock-concern crossed her face as Mara winced, and she leaned closer to the screen. "Is that soot on your face?" She laughed at Mara's grumbled response, then sobered. "And how was Urd?"

Mara sighed and failed miserably at a disapproving frown that insisted on turning into a soft smile. "As beautiful and irritating as ever."

Calise sighed. "I'm sure she'll join us eventually. She's too pragmatic to be really comfortable with those dreamers." Straightening up, she asked, "And what can Intelligence do for you?"

Mara held up the folder. "I have a report here from an imp named Gorash on assignment in Nerima."

"Ah, the one about the succubus hanging around Nabiki Tendo."

"Ah, you've seen it. Will you see what we have on the succubus?"

"Nothing." Calise chuckled at Mara's surprised look. "When I saw the report I knew you'd be interested and looked into it, and we don't have anything on a succubus named Ranma. Not too surprising, seeing how we don't really pay much attention to those scatterbrained bimbos, but _something_ weird obviously happened to this one."

"Yes," Mara agreed, frowning thoughtfully, "and she's somehow involved with my hopefully future lieutenant. I wonder how that happened? Nabiki's always been more concerned with her safety, she hasn't been the type to dominate someone else just for her own personal pleasure. I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend."

Calise shook her head. "Not likely. As soon as I saw the report I assigned some higher power surveillance and did a little research. It's been over a week since Nabiki's summoned any imps, or anything else according to the surveillance. There's been some summoning magic causing blips occasionally, but nothing lasting anywhere near long enough for a summoning to take place."

"Has Research come up with an explanation for the blips?"

"No, they're as confused as we are. As for Nabiki herself, her aura's all wrong for someone turning sadistic — not, however, for someone falling in love."

"Hmmm," Mara stared unseeing at the wall for a long moment, then shook herself. "After I plow through my backlog and make sure I don't have any other immediate fires to put out I'm going to have to make a personal reconnaissance — I have a sneaky suspicion that our plans for Nabiki are going off the rails. Meanwhile, put out the word that I want to know anything any of our contacts might know about a succubus named Ranma. And Calise? Thanks."

Calise smiled at her old friend. "No problem, glad to help." The phone's screen went black.

Mara smiled fondly at the blank screen, then groaned as she turned back to the stack of folders.

/oOo\

Carrying an oversized bento, Kasumi knocked on Nabiki's door and stepped in, then took an unconscious step back as Nabiki looked over from her computer monitor and literally snarled at her older sister. Instantly, Nabiki went from a snarl to a ruefully apologetic look. "Sorry about that, sis, I'm just feeling a little frustrated at the moment."

Kasumi walked over and handed the bento to her younger sister, then looked at the monitor and saw a picture of a sultry-looking nude woman with wings. "It's time for you to head to school, Akane has already left. So, no luck on finding information on succubuses? That doesn't look much like Ranma."

"The plural is 'succubae', and no, the problem's just the opposite," Nabiki said with a sigh, shutting down her desktop computer. "There's too much, and every site seems to either be too general, too likely to be false, or contradicts other sites — even the sites that are normally reliable contradict each other. I'm afraid that in this case the 'net just isn't going to give me answers I can trust. I'm going to have to go to my magic source here in Tokyo and see if he can suggest a book I can order, and that's going to take time."

Kasumi gave her downcast sister a quick hug. "Cheer up, Nabiki, at least we now have a name. So this is a step back, at least we've made two steps forward!"

Nabiki had stiffened to the hug at first, but relaxed and hugged Kasumi back for a moment before breaking away to pick up her school bag. "You're right, and I know just having the name is a huge step forward, but for a moment there I thought we had all the answers. Ah, well, they'll come with time." Then perking up, Nabiki added, "Besides, Ranma's nature isn't the only thing I'm trying to get answers on. Let's collect her and I'll get to school, there should be some waiting for me there."

/oOo\

Akane strode down the sidewalk toward Furinkan High School, moving up to a trot. _Strange,_ she thought to herself when she realized what she was doing and slowed down to a stride again, _I'm actually eager to face the Hentai Horde and Kuno today._ Her face twisted into a vicious smile as she thought of the coming battle. _I really need to hit something — or someone — and they'll do as well as anyone, and better than most!_

She reflected on the last week, the way Nabiki was no longer so hyper-focused on everything around her; the way her gaze would occasionally go unfocused, as if she was seeing something no one else could; the way every so often her usual cynical smile would soften. All Akane's friends insisted that all meant her middle sister was seeing someone, but she'd been unable to find anything that even hinted at who the boy could be (once again Akane firmly squelched the suggestion some of her friends had made that perhaps Nabiki had a _girl_friend), and Akane's frustration was steadily growing.

The school gates came into view and Akane again broke into a trot, then a run, her chanted mantra growing into a shout: "I hate boys, I hate boys, _I hate boys_, I HATE BOYS!"

/oOo\

As Nabiki walked down the sidewalk, she carefully looked out of the corner of her eye as she glanced toward the cute, busty and very naked redhead floating along at her side. _Yup, that imp's still following us. At least, I _think_ it's the same imp. I wonder who set it to spy on me? I'll have to see if I can come up with a trap._ Dismissing the imp from her mind for the moment, she focused on Ranma's impressive chest with an inward lascivious grin only to see Ranma blush and turn slightly so that her assets weren't quite as much on display. "Ranma, what's with the blush?"

"Uh ... well, ya see ... y-you're th-th-thinkin' about me, aren't you?" Ranma stuttered.

"Yeah, so?"

"I-I mean _thinking_ about me, like in the d-dreams we had the first few nights."

"Well ... yes, I was," Nabiki admitted. "Sorry if that bothers you, but you're just so _cute_." She chuckled as Ranma's blush grew deeper. "But how did you know?" she asked.

"I dunno, I just did — I ... I _felt_ it, somehow," the now thoroughly embarrassed nature spirit replied.

Nabiki nodded thoughtfully. "You must be an empath of some sort. Makes sense."

"An em-what?" Ranma asked, her blush dying down now that Nabiki was focused on something besides her physical attributes.

"An empath, someone that can sense other people's emotions," Nabiki explained. "Is lust the only one you can pick up, or can you sense other emotions as well?"

"Others too, it's just that, uh ... well ..." Ranma was a brilliant red again. "I don't really know what the others mean yet, lust is the only one I've been able to figure out."

"Lots of exposure, right?" Nabiki grinned at Ranma. "Well, I'm sure the rest will come with experience. And speaking of dreams, you weren't in mine last night, but I woke up alone this morning. Did you not spend the night with me, or successfully stay out of my head and just get up early?"

Ranma brightened, relieved at the change of subject. "Both, I guess. I couldn't fall asleep at all, so after a few hours I got up and practiced my new katas."

"Hmmm." Nabiki gazed forward, deep in thought. "Do you feel tired?"

"No, not really."

"After hours of no sleep and all that time spent practicing? Then maybe your variety of nature spirit doesn't sleep, except when occupying someone else's dream," Nabiki thought out loud. "Interesting ..."

The school gates came into view, and Nabiki paused and glanced around — nobody paying attention to her, good. "We're almost there, so remember — you can practice your katas on the school fields or explore the town while I'm in class. I'll be out by the corner of the wall by myself for lunch like always so you can join me then, but this time _don't_ harass me in class!"

Ranma chuckled nervously, reaching back and scratching the back of her head. "Yeah, I won't. Sorry 'bout that."

Nabiki grinned and started again for the school gates. "Hey, don't worry about it, just don't do it again. Now come on, we ought to be in time for you to see the aftermath."

"Aftermath?" Ranma asked, and then they walked/floated through the gates and the redhead stared at the groaning or unconscious (or both) bodies scattered around with a panting Akane standing over an unconscious Kuno. "Whoa, what happened here?"

Nabiki winced slightly at the odd looks some of the watching students sent her way. None of them were close enough to have made out what Ranma said, but ... "Shhh," she hissed. "I'll explain at lunch. Now be quiet — remember, even if people can't see you they can still hear you. Now, I have to get to class."

"Oh, right, sorry," Ranma whispered back. "I'll see ya at lunch." Then she floated up above the heads of the students and headed toward the field.

Nabiki watched her friend head off, then turned and headed for the school doors through the scattered bodies. _An empath. That's great, just ... great. I can hide how I feel, but how do I suppress it? Can I suppress it? Do I _want_ to suppress it? Ranma was just really getting comfortable with what she is again, damn it! But she's going to have to learn the truth eventually... I really hope Kazuki has something for me today, I could really use some good news._

**/\**

Gosunkugi turned away from the school window as the students below started entering the school, a snarl on his face so intense that the boy next to him actually flinched back from the normally next-to-invisible boy. _So now Nabiki's bringing her fuck-toy to school again. She must have it properly 'trained' now, and I can just guess what she's going to be up to during lunch!_

Walking over to his desk, he pondered the past week — specifically, the past week's silence. _And where's that imp? You would think by now it would have something to report. Well, Nabiki, you can have your lunchtime fun, _I'll_ be seeing about teaching you a lesson about getting above your station._

* * *

The title comes in part from the song from _Les Miserables_.


	9. One Day More: Afternoon

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima or Kosuke Fujishima.

* * *

"Kazuki, we need to talk."

Kazuki winced at the voice and turned to face the approaching earth-haired girl with a page boy haircut as he dropped his lunch bento back into his school bag. _Great, the Ice Queen is back,_ he thought. However Nabiki may have been acting recently, and whatever rumors had been swirling around her because of it, now her gaze was as sharp and focused as a scalpel, and if she was feeling any emotion at all he couldn't see so much as a hint on her face.

"S-s-sure, Nabiki," he stammered.

"Privately," Nabiki responded, and stared at his friends nearby. With sympathetic glances toward Kazuki they moved out of earshot. Nabiki glanced around, then lowered her voice. "Do you have them?"

"Yeah," a suddenly sweating Kazuki said. "Nabiki, are you sure about this? I've already broken laws getting these records, but the chances of me getting caught are infinitesimal. But giving them to you will break even more laws, and not just for me — you'll be on the chopping block, too, if we're caught. And with the data out of my protection the odds of getting caught jump, a lot."

"No," Nabiki responded, "I'll drop by your house sometime in the next couple of days with a flash drive for you to put the records on, then once I've verified the data's good you can wipe your copies — thoroughly. If I get caught I won't tell anyone how I got them, you're in the clear."

Kazuki looked doubtful, but finally shrugged. It wasn't like he could do anything about it. "And the photos?" he asked.

"I'll keep them for defensive purposes, but only that — all payments stop as soon as I verify that the records are good. So long as you don't try and get back at me, we can both forget they exist." Nabiki chuckled as Kazuki's face fell. "What did you expect? You're the best hacker in the school and you have reasons to _really_ not like me. You could do some serious damage to me and mine, so I keep the photos and you leave me alone. But don't worry, unless you do something stupid your current girlfriend isn't going to know how far you got with your last one."

Smiling cynically, Nabiki turned and walked away toward her desk, but inwardly something was — different. She felt ... _Light. I feel like a weight's come off my shoulders, or like something inside's relaxed. Weird._

/oOo\

Gosunkugi smiled viciously as he completed the summoning ritual and the imp he'd tasked with spying on Nabiki appeared inside the circle. It meant skipping his lunch, and it hadn't been easy maneuvering to make sure he could approach the school shed without being seen by Nabiki eating her lunch in her corner of the school wall with her plaything for company (a surprise, that, he'd expected her to disappear for a different kind of lunch), and he wasn't sure how well his ad hoc 'don't notice me' ritual had worked on everyone else, and he was going to smell of incense for the rest of the day, but he was sick of waiting.

"So," he snarled at his minion, "what have you learned and why haven't you reported back?"

"A thousand apologies, Master," the imp quavered as it groveled inside the circle, "but your servant hasn't yet completed the task you set, and you commanded that I report back only when the task was complete."

Gosunkugi frowned, trying to remember what he'd said a week earlier. Had he left out instructions for regular reports? "And why haven't you fulfilled the simple task I set you?"

The imp shrank down even more and with a shaking voice said, "It was simply impossible, Master! Nabiki's ward covers the entire property without a break, there are no holes to slip through. And the ward is too strong. If I was three times — thirty times — stronger, I still wouldn't be able to break through. And even if I did it would be pointless, I would simply alert her to my presence!"

Keeping its eyes downcast, Gorash looked up out of the corner of its eye and grinned viciously at the ground to see Gosunkugi stiffen and hear his grinding teeth. _Didn't like that little reminder of how badly Nabiki outclasses you, did you, 'Master'?_

Gosunkugi took a deep breath and managed to keep his voice steady. "Did your incompetence keep you from learning anything at all?"

"No, Master, I did manage to overhear the nature spirit's use-name. Nabiki called her Ranma."

Gosunkugi waited, but the cringing imp said nothing more. "_That's it?_ A solid week of spying and all you learned is a useless use-name?!

"Yes, master, the only identification your useless servant was able to learn was her use-name."

"Of all the stupid, lazy, useless —" Gosunkugi again fought his temper under control, and in a cold voice said, "Begone, back to rot in the hellhole I pulled you out of. You are released from your duty."

The imp vanished in a puff of smoke, and Gosunkugi sighed and started cleaning up. _What a waste of time. Well, it looks like subtlety isn't going to get me anywhere. I'll have to see what names I can get from Dad's list that could break through that uppity bitch's wards. Maybe one of them would like to play with her toy in front of her before it deals with her? It isn't like the spirit isn't already well used, and maybe the experience will make it grateful for a more gentle master ... something to think about._

/oOo\

Nabiki sat on the park grass with her back to a tree, her crossed legs stretched out in front of her, the late afternoon sun warm on her face, her fingers running through the hair of her favorite redhead lying beside her with her head in her lap and gazing up at her with a contented smile on her face. Nabiki's gaze wandered down from Ranma's face to pause at her firm, somewhat oversized breasts (oddly unflattened by gravity, as would have been the case for any human woman in her position) before drifting further downward. Nabiki felt herself getting warmer than the sun could explain and her mouth began to water ... then she felt Ranma stir uncomfortably and her eyes snapped back to Ranma's face and with an effort she banished thoughts of the view she'd just been enjoying from her mind. "Sorry about that," she murmured.

Ranma relaxed again and smiled ruefully up at her friend. "Don't be sorry, just don't do it again." The feeling coming from Nabiki now that she was looking at her face instead of lower down ... _Oh, that feels good — like standing in sunshine, or sinking into a warm furo, or ..._

Nabiki laughed at hearing her own words from that morning paraphrased back at her, and Ranma added her own chuckles, then sobered. "Ya know, I still don't understand what this Kuno guy is thinking — what he's doing to Akane isn't a challenge, it's an outright attack. Sure, the training she's gettin' in crowd fighting is great, but doing it every morning ... not even Pop did something that stupid. Though I'm surprised he didn't think of having us fight back against the shopkeepers instead a' just running. Maybe 'cause he wanted to be gone before the cops showed up..."

"Shopkeepers? Do I really want to know?" Nabiki asked dryly.

Ranma grinned up at her. "Mobs of shopkeepers are almost as good as wolf packs for speed and endurance training."

Nabiki winced and chuckled ruefully. "Every time I think your father can't be any more of an idiot ... So are you going to go along with my suggestion at lunch?"

Ranma grimaced. "I dunno — it just doesn't feel right to run out on Pop like that ..."

"Ranma, what he's put you through — you may not think it's as bad as what Akane's going through, but you're wrong. And it isn't just the physical danger, though how you've survived till now is beyond me. You, my friend, are almost certainly very poorly socialized."

"Huh?" a bewildered Ranma queried.

"I mean, you don't really know how to act around people, do you? Constantly on the move with only your father, of all people, for company, how could you? And I'll bet you haven't gotten much schooling, either."

Hey, I'm a martial artist, I don't need schooling!"

"Really?" Nabiki quirked an eyebrow. "Didn't you tell me you want to run a dojo, teach students? Well for that, you need more than just skill in combat. You need to know at least enough math to make sure your students or their parents are paying you properly, figure out the taxes ... and you may need a college degree in physical education to get the license you need, I'll have to check."

"License? Ya need a license to teach the Art?"

"I think so, at least if you want to be paid. You should probably also spend some time with more normal teachers, and think back on how your teachers _other_ than your father taught you. You may have survived your father's teaching, but I don't think other parents are going to allow their kids to go through what you did. Besides," Nabiki said, her voice and smile softening, "I'd like to meet my best friend's other half."

Ranma sighed, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Things must'a changed since Pop trained. All right, once Pop gets to shore, I'll find out where he's planning to go and stick with him 'til we're as close to Nerima as we're going to get, then get away and come here."

Nabiki sighed in relief and smiled broadly, then frowned when Ranma grimaced and curled up a little. "Ranma, is something wrong?"

"Nah, nothin' I can't handle."

Nabiki stopped stroking Ranma's hair and rapped her on the forehead. "Ranma, being a tough guy is one thing, being an idiot is something else. We don't know that much about what you are, and every little bit helps. So, what's wrong?"

Smiling sheepishly, Ranma answered, "I dunno, I just feel a little ... empty, I guess. Like there's a hole in me pulling on me, that needs filling or somethin'."

_A hole, filling, what could ... oh, please, no._ Nabiki tried to act casual, but Ranma stiffened and sat up at the harsh feel of the fear that began rolling off of her friend.

"Nabiki, what's wrong?"

"Ranma, that dream the second night, the one that freaked you out — did you feel anything like this then?" Nabiki asked.

Ranma frowned thoughtfully, thinking back. "Yeah, you're right, I did. What's it mean?"

_Shit, shit, shit! I really didn't want to tell her this yet ... ah, well, needs must._ Nabiki sighed and spread her arms. "Ranma, come here, sit."

A Ranma made increasingly frightened by the emotions of fear and resignation radiating from Nabiki that she couldn't recognize but didn't like the feel of moved over and sat in Nabiki's lap, and Nabiki enfolded her in an embrace. "Come on, Nabiki, you're ... you're makin' me nervous. What's wrong?"

Nabiki thought for a moment, then said, "Ranma, I have something to tell you, something I've known since that morning after the dream. I didn't tell you then or since because I didn't know enough, still don't really, and I was half-hoping that I was wrong. Ranma, your problem right now is that you are hungry, and what you need to satisfy that hunger is sex."

Ranma stiffened. "No. No, ya must be wrong, I can't need that, I can't ..."

Nabiki tightened her embrace, pulling Ranma harder against her. "I'm afraid so. That day you didn't eat very much while with your father, did you?"

"Well, no ..."

"I didn't think so. The food you eat when in human form must transfer across when you turn into a spirit, keeping you from needing to feed _as_ a spirit. But you didn't eat that day and transformed hungry, then went to bed with me ... and your new instincts kicked in. And now it's been at least a day since you last ate ... when did you last eat?"

"Yesterday noon, some. Pop's splashin' me at meal times sometimes," a slightly confused Ranma replied. She hadn't understood everything Nabiki had said, but she'd gotten the gist of it and ... she started to curl into a ball.

"Yesterday noon, right," Nabiki echoed. "Over a day and a quarter. You definitely need to eat, and that means sex."

"No!" Ranma shouted. "Listen, I'll just get some hot water and —"

"— and end up right back here," Nabiki finished. "Or will your father have finished his little swim by now?"

Ranma deflated. "No, he'll still be out there. I'd just end up in the water and ... yeah, you're right. But that doesn't mean I hafta ... feed ... I can just wait, it won't be more than another couple'a days 'fore he's here an' I can eat then."

Nabiki shook her head. "No, Ranma, we can't wait. We don't know what your spirit body can handle, you could starve to death before then. I'm not losing the only friend I have out of ignorance!"

Ranma was shaking like a leaf. "No, there's gotta be another way! I can't ... I'm not ..."

"Ranma, why does the idea of sex terrify you so badly?" a now deeply concerned Nabiki asked. "Did ... something ... happen to you when you were younger?"

"Huh?" Nabiki's question and rising fear startled Ranma out of his own rising panic. "What're ya talkin' about?"

"Ranma, has anyone ... has anyone had sex with you before?" Nabiki got out through the lump in her throat.

"Huh? No!" a now thoroughly confused Ranma shouted.

Now Nabiki was the relieved but confused one. "So why are you so afraid of sex?"

"I'm not afraid a nothin'," Ranma insisted. "I'm not! It's just ... Nabiki, I'm a guy! What if ... what if I like it more as a girl? I can't start ... start ..."

A light went on in the back of Nabiki's mind. "Oh damn, this has to be the worst possible case of gender dysfunction imaginable."

"H-Huh? Wh-what?" Ranma stuttered.

Nabiki sighed and freed one hand to stroke Ranma's hair. Ranma slowly stopped shaking and relaxed at the feeling, along with the emotions radiating from Nabiki, warm and soft on one hand and warm and ... sharp? ... on the other. "Never mind," Nabiki sighed. "Listen, Ranma, you probably _will_ enjoy it more as a ... nature spirit ... than as a human. But that isn't because you're a girl as a nature spirit and a guy as a human, it's because it's your nature as a ... a sex spirit."

Seeing that Ranma hadn't understood a word she'd said, she tried again. "Ranma, if you turned into a wolf instead of a nature spirit, would you be surprised if when you were a wolf you enjoyed chasing down and killing and eating rabbits?" Ranma shook her head. "And would you be surprised if you enjoyed hunting rabbits more as a wolf than as a human?" Ranma shook her head again. "It's the same thing here. Your type of nature spirit is _supposed_ to feed off of sex, of course you're going to enjoy it more as a nature spirit. Is that so bad?"

Ranma was beginning to shake again. "Yes! I'm a guy, I can't ... Please, Nabiki, I know yer smarter than me. There's gotta be a way ..."

Nabiki stopped stroking Ranma's hair and pulled the red-topped head against her shoulder and stared thoughtfully into space, thinking back to the dream, the sequence of events, what she'd done, what Ranma had done ... and slowly nodded. "Okay, I think I know a way. You aren't going to like it much, but it'll be better than having sex you don't want or starving." Gathering the petite, and weightless, redhead into her arms, she stood up, then paused as she looked out across the park — the occupied park. _Damn, no way I can carry her home, it would just look too weird._ "Come on, Ranma, we need to get home for this and I can't carry you."

Ranma slowly uncurled, then when Nabiki let her go floated out beside her and the two started back toward the dojo.

/oOo\

Mara stalked into her Niflheim apartment, and with a growl kicked a floor pillow across the room. _Argh! And things were going so well, too._ Flopping into the comfortable reading chair beside her bookshelf, she leaned back and indulged in a long string of curses, from modern languages to ones so long dead that their very existence had been forgotten. Finally running down, she sighed and, straightening up and focusing a small thread of summoning power, snapped her fingers.

Instantly, an imp appeared in a nearby permanent summoning circle. Glancing around, it located Mara and bowed. "Mara, I've been expecting your summons. How may Gorash serve you tonight?"

Motioning for Gorash to take a seat, Mara said, "Gorash, your initiative in bringing the relationship between Nabiki and Ranma to my attention was well done, no fault to you that I was too busy to read it immediately. The report was also well written. I've written a note of appreciation and had it placed in your file."

Gorash stood on its seat and bowed. "Your approbation for your servant's service is much appreciated."

Mara smiled knowingly as Gorash again sat down. "Very pretty! Your 'service' under Gosunkugi getting frustrating?" Her smile turned to an outright laugh at Gorash's growl. "When I was watching Nabiki and Ranma I didn't sense you anywhere around. Are you finished with your assignment to Gosunkugi?"

Gorash nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, he summoned me during his school's lunch break. He was _most_ disappointed when all I could give him was the nature spirit's use-name and told me not to darken his doorway again," it said with a distinct lack of dejection at its 'failure'.

"Great!" Mara responded. "From now until I tell you otherwise, consider yourself attached to my service."

Gorash again stood and bowed, this time with more sincerity. "My thanks, Mistress, I'm gratified that you want me in your service."

"You earned it," Mara asserted. "However, I'm afraid you aren't going to like your first assignment very much. First, do you think that Nabiki noticed your spying?"

Gorash frowned thoughtfully. "I can't say for certain — from what I've heard she's usually _very_ good at keeping control of her face and body language, but she seemed distracted this past week. Still, I'd say the odds are good that she noticed me and was simply too good to let me know it."

Mara nodded. "About what I expected. I want you to take another two imps of your choosing and resume your shadowing of Nabiki — however, I want you to allow her to know one of you is there, if she doesn't already, without letting her know that you know she knows. While you are watching her, keep an eye out for any other supernatural creatures spying on her. If you notice any, have one of your companions report immediately and the other stick with Nabiki, while you shadow the shadowers yourself — report every other day regardless, and if anything sufficiently unusual to warrant my attention occurs."

Gorash sighed but nodded. "Yes, Mistress, it will be done."

Mara grinned at her new servitor. "I know, it'll be boring. But at least you'll be spying for someone that can make decent use of what you've learned. And eventually, I expect things to get rather exciting."

Gorash brightened at the thought. "There is that. Very well, Mistress, with your permission I'll get started right away." And at Mara's wave of dismissal the imp walked over to the summoning circle and vanished.

Mara leaned back in her reading chair again as a pensive look crossed her face, and stared at the ceiling for several minutes, only to jerk up straight at a knock on her door. Getting up with a sigh, she opened the door and stared at the figure standing there.

It was Calise, dressed to the nines in knee-high boots, black net stockings, a leather extra-wide belt doing duty as a miniskirt, and a black leather halter top with gold calligraphy embroidered around the breast panels. Mara whistled as she motioned her friend into the apartment. "Looking good, girl, expecting a party?"

"Eventually," Calise said with a wink. "But first, I noticed you summoned Gorash and thought I'd see how your day went."

Chuckling as Calise sat down on the couch and Mara again leaned back in her reading chair, Mara asked, "Curious about Ranma, are you?"

"Well, she _is _something of a mystery," Calise agreed. "Plus, I was wondering about the Nabiki situation."

Mara sighed and stared at the ceiling. "This afternoon I watched and listened in on what's going on with Nabiki, and my plans for her are, quite literally, completely fucked. I'm now in salvage mode — simply waiting until one of her blackmail victims kills her and recruiting her when she shows up in Niflheim is no longer an option."

Glancing back at Calise, Mara said, "It turns out that there's a good reason Ranma's name didn't come up in your record search — Ranma's not actually a succubus, or at least not one all the time. Could you check Records for any file we might have for a male, probably human, named Ranma?"

Calise stared at her friend. "You mean Ranma's a man that turns into a succubus? How did _that_ happen?"

Shrugging, Mara said, "I don't know how it happened yet, and from what I overheard I'd say he's a boy rather than a man, though already a skilled martial artist. He's been trained by his father, among others. Apparently, cold water activates the change — I'd say that the flashes of summoning magic your observers were picking up were a summons reactivating whenever the change took place. So, can you do the records search for me?"

"Sure, no problem, now my curiosity is _fully _engaged. So what are your plans now?"

"It's simple enough." Mara responded. "Since we can't wait for Nabiki to continue to develop the way we want until she dies and go with the 'better to reign in Hell' offer, we'll have to go with 'the end justifies the means' offer, instead. She doesn't know it, but she's made an enemy that can squash her and hers like a bug, or at least his family can. And daddy dearest probably will in order to maintain family unity and position, even if he sits on Hikaru at the same time to keep him from doing anything _else_ stupid. So we keep her alive long enough for her to get desperate, then offer our protection for her and hers in return for her sworn service."

Calise nodded thoughtfully. "Not bad, for an off-the-cuff improvisation. Do you think it will really work?"

Mara shrugged. "We'll see. I certainly hope so, because there is no plan C. Anyway, that can wait until tomorrow, no need to skip the party you're headed to."

"The party _we're_ headed to, girlfriend," Calise responded with a saucy smile.

"Huh?"

"I know you, girl. These little adventures of yours with the Norns, especially Urd, always end the same way — you getting a pity drunk on in your apartment and going to work the next morning hung over and frustrated. Well, not this time! You're going to get cleaned up, dressed up, and dolled up. Then we're going to hit a club and show them how it's done, and pick up a couple of studs, or three or four, and let them show _us_ how it's done. You'll still be getting to work without much rest, but for a _much_ better reason."

Mara stared at her friend for a moment, then straightened up, hopped out of her chair and headed for the bedroom. "Calise, when you're right, you're right. Make yourself at home while I get ready, and we'll go make some lucky guys _very_ happy and let them return the favor."


	10. One Day More: Carrick-A-Rede

I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.

**High citrus content, you have been warned.**

* * *

Floating in the middle of Nabiki's bedroom, Ranma nervously rubbed the back of her neck as Nabiki closed the door. "Uh, why are we here, Nabiki?" she asked.

"To take care of your hunger problem," Nabiki responded with a sigh. Turning, she slipped off her house slippers and walked over to her friend. "Listen, Ranma, there's two ways to get you fed. First, I can take a nap and you can join me in my dream —"

Ranma was shaking her head. "No way, I'd lose control again an' as hungry as I am it might be dangerous for you, so it's not happenin'."

Nabiki nodded. "I thought that's what you would say. Well, the other way is sex."

Ranma stiffened. "But I thought ya said ya knew a way ta avoid that!"

"I do, sort of," Nabiki agreed. "Look, Ranma, you need sex to feed in your spirit form, but there's no reason why you have to be involved."

"Huh?" a now confused Ranma queried.

"It's simple enough," Nabiki said with a shrug. "I get myself off while you're touching me, you feed on the energy produced, you get fed without doing a thing."

"G-g-get off?"

"Sure," Nabiki said with a grin. "You're a guy, you've jacked off before, I'm sure."

Ranma jerkily nodded as a blush turned her cheeks rosy.

"Well, girls have their own way of doing the same thing. I figure if I do that while you're holding me, you should be able to feed without doing a thing." When her friend started to unconsciously drift backwards, Nabiki stepped forward and pulled a stiff Ranma into a hug. Look, Ranma," she said softly, "I'm not letting you starve so those are your choices — a dream party or me getting myself off, which will it be?"

After a long moment, Ranma relaxed. "You gettin' off, I guess," she said dully. "How're we doin' this?"

Nabiki winced at the tone and gave Ranma an extra squeeze. Then, letting Ranma go and turning toward her closet, she pulled her shirt off over her head and quickly unsnapped and removed her bra. "Get over by the bed," she said as she slipped her pants and panties off together before opening the closet door.

As a still blushing Ranma moved toward the bed, Nabiki pulled a box out from a drawer, then started going through it. _Let's see. This is going to be a 'wham, bam, thank you ma'am', so nothing fancy._ She lifted out a dildo realistically shaped and colored and _very_ generously endowed, then shook her head and put it back. _No, that one would get me off the fastest but let's not scare Ranma_ too _badly._ She pulled out another dildo, still sort of realistically-shaped but smaller and made out of clear, smooth plastic, and nodded. _That'll do — the proper size and shape to do the job, but not so clearly a penis-substitute as to shake Ranma up even more than she already is, if she can even see it._

She closed the box and put it away, then turned toward the bed and sighed. Ranma was curled up with her eyes closed. "Ranma, what's the point in not looking at me? It's not like you haven't been seeing me naked ever since you first arrived!"

"Y-yeah," Ranma said, "but ya always had clothes on, even if I could barely see 'em — now ya aren't wearing anything. It's ... different."

Nabiki just shook her head ruefully and walked over. "Ranma, you need to straighten out and move back against the wall." Ranma complied, sinking halfway into the wall while keeping her eyes closed, and Nabiki lay down on the bed, spread her legs, then reached over and pulled Ranma against her. "Come on, Ranma, you need to be holding me for this. Put your arms around me." Ranma's arms encircled Nabiki just under her breasts while leaving her arms free, pulling Ranma halfway into the bed, and she pressed her face against Nabiki's neck and shoulder. With Ranma pressed against her side Nabiki could feel the shivers running the length of Ranma's body.

_Damn, Ranma _really _hates this, even worse than I was afraid of. There's _got _to be a way to make this easier on her._ Nabiki lay still for a few minutes, thinking furiously while hoping that Ranma's shivers would die down — they didn't. Finally, Nabiki shifted her hands toward her breasts, and sighed to herself when she felt Ranma's arms tighten. _Well, maybe the feelings she picks up will make things better. Wait a minute, feelings! Ranma's an empath, she's been picking up my lust all day! She needs more to feed, but what if I change the 'flavor'?_

Closing her eyes, Nabiki started thinking back over the time she'd spent with Ranma. _Ranma, covering up when she first realized Nabiki could see her. Her smile when she'd pop in wherever Nabiki might be. Her focused concentration on her katas, for hours at a time. The way she'd blush at the least hint of Nabiki being attracted to her. The dreamy smile when she'd had her head in Nabiki's lap just that afternoon._ Nabiki felt the happiness that would fill her when thinking of her friend flood in, and Ranma first stiffened, then relaxed and her shivering slowed and finally stopped.

_Good,_ Nabiki thought, _that's done it. Now to the main course._ Slowly, keeping the images of Ranma clear in her mind, Nabiki reached up and ran her fingers over and around her breasts. The room suddenly seemed warmer as tingles of pleasure shot through her. Ranma stiffened again but soon relaxed, and to Nabiki's relief the shivering didn't return. _Great, it's working! Now to up the ante._

One hand still massaging her left breast, she reached down with her right hand and ran a finger between her legs. Slowly, she felt the warmth between her legs build and radiate out through her body, as her breathing deepened and she began to squirm. Deciding she was aroused enough, she slipped a finger up inside, then added a second, then a third.

Even as she started to gasp, she brought new images to mind, ones from her daydreams rather than her memories. _Nabiki and Ranma in a deep kiss, hands running up and down each other's back as their naked breasts pressed together. Ranma moaning as Nabiki nibbled and sucked on a generous breast, with one hand massaging the other breast and the fingers of her other hand between Ranma's legs. Nabiki gazing down at a wealth of red hair as she held her friend's head firmly between her legs, so that her writhing wouldn't displace the mouth sucking and licking at her._

Now Ranma was beginning to squirm, and to Nabiki's shock her friend's hand shifted up her side and began to massage Nabiki's right breast — a little too hard, but Nabiki was beyond caring. Reaching down to where she'd laid the clear dildo beside her leg, Nabiki slipped the head inside her and slowly began pumping. She felt the familiar pressure building even as her hips seemed to take on a life of their own, thrusting up to meet the pumping dildo, and then she barely managed to hold back a scream as the wave broke, sending waves of echoes washing and rebounding through her. Through the haze of pleasure Nabiki barely felt the way Ranma's one-armed hug and grip on her breast tighten at the same moment.

Going limp, she just lay there for a moment as her breathing slowed, then slipped the dildo out. Putting it to the side she tried to hug Ranma, and on finding it difficult to hug someone half-embedded in a bed she grasped Ranma's arm and pulled her out and across her chest. With Ranma's head on her breast, Nabiki began gently running one hand along her petite friend's back while stroking Ranma's hair with the other.

Neither of the two had noticed when Nabiki's door had opened a crack, and then quietly closed.

/\

Akane panted, sweat dripping from her face, as the sound of shattering blocks filled the dojo. Try as she might, the exercise just could not chase the memory of what she'd seen in Nabiki's bedroom out of her mind. She'd gotten back early from her study session with Yuka and Sayuri — it had degenerated into a gossip session, mainly about Nabiki — and had been headed to her room to drop off her books before practicing her Art when she'd heard some odd sounds coming from Nabiki's room as she passed. Thinking that maybe Nabiki was with the elusive boyfriend everyone seemed to agree she had to have (while violently _disagreeing_ on just who the boyfriend might be), Akane had cracked open the door prepared to attack whoever might be corrupting her older sister only to get the shock of her life.

_Okay, so it wasn't _that _much of a shock. So my sister's a pervert, it's not like I didn't already know that she isn't exactly normal. And maybe this explains her weird behavior over the past week or so, she's just _wishing _she had a boyfriend instead of actually having one, maybe even daydreaming about one boy in particular._ Akane found her mind focusing again on what she'd seen, the way Nabiki had been slamming the dildo home, the way she'd gasped and moaned out her pleasure, the way her breast —

Akane shook her head and glared at the shattered blocks. _Okay, this isn't working. Maybe a long hard run will help wear me out and take my mind off things._ She headed out to change into her running clothes, once again carefully ignoring the memory of Nabiki's right breast palpitating, as if an unseen hand was helping Nabiki with her self-pleasuring...

/\

Ranma slowly loosened her grip on Nabiki as the aftershocks of the flood of energy from Nabiki's orgasm died away. She stiffened momentarily on being pulled up onto Nabiki's chest, then relaxed and snuggled a bit into her breasts as Ranma felt Nabiki's hands begin stroking her hair and along her back. _Wow, that was just ... wow. I thought that dream was powerful, but ..._ Ranma thought back over the last few minutes. The trickle, and then flood, of energy had been familiar from the dream, but it hadn't been alone. Mixed with the energy had been the same warmth she had been basking in lately while in Nabiki's presence, combined with the eager lust she'd felt from time to time and even a few images that just remembering made her blush even as she luxuriated in the feelings they'd been piggybacked onto.

"Ranma? _Ranma?_ RANMA!"

Ranma jerked as Nabiki's near shout right next to her ear finally penetrated her introspection. "Yeah, Nabiki?" she responded almost drowsily.

"How do you feel?"

The concerned tone in Nabiki's voice finally penetrated, and Ranma pulled away from Nabiki's comforting hands and sat up — well, floated up into a sitting position — and gazed down on the sweaty but worried face of her friend. "Actually, I feel pretty good. That was kinda the same as the dream, but ... but different. There was yer lust and warmth all mixed up with the energy, and even ..." Ranma's blush deepened, "... even some pictures. How'd ya do that?"

Nabiki sighed with relief even as she quirked an eyebrow. "You actually saw some of what I was imagining? Impressive. How clear was it?"

"Not very," Ranma admitted. "More like flashes, little pieces a few seconds long."

"They must have piggybacked on the emotions you were picking up from me. You weren't picking up anything like that earlier?"

Ranma shook her head.

"It must take really strong emotions to do that. Still, in the right situation that could be a _very_ handy ability," Nabiki said thoughtfully.

"Maybe," Ranma said, shrugging.

Nabiki focused again on the naked redhead on display beside her. "That lust and ... and warmth the memories came with, did they make a difference?" she asked hesitantly.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, it did."

"So, are you ... well, full?"

Ranma focused inward, on the 'void' at her center, and frowned. "Naw, a ... a bit over halfway, I think. Hard ta say for sure."

Nabiki frowned. "Well, I suppose we could leave it at that, though it'll probably mean a repeat tomorrow. Or ... or we could have another go right now, and maybe tide you over until your father finishes his swim."

Ranma said nothing for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. _Ya know, that really felt good — even better than the dream. The ... the feelings really changed things. And I do feel better now, with some a' that void filled. And it looks like Nabiki's right, 'bout this being what this body demands, so it's bound to happen again, so I might as well get used to it. And ... and Nabiki's been so nice ta me, I need to do _something_ ta pay her back a little..._

Blushing again, Ranma said, "Let's take care of it right now. But ... but this time ... thistimecanIgetyouoffmyself?"

Nabiki deciphered Ranma's last blurted statement, then stared in shock at her busty friend. "Did you just ask if you could get me off?"

Ranma nodded mutely.

Niabiki smiled broadly and spread her arms wide. "Of course you can. Now come here!"

Ranma floated down and was instantly enveloped in an enthusiastic hug. "I thought maybe after this you wouldn't want to be around me anymore," Nabiki mumbled into Ranma's shoulder.

"Nah," Ranma replied, returning the hug. "I know you're only tryin' ta help. Even if it hadn't been so good I'd still wanna be your friend."

Nabiki broke their hug, only to grab the back of Ranma's head and pull her into a heartfelt kiss while the fingers of her other hand traced a path along Ranma's side. Ranma relaxed at the warmth washing into her from Nabiki, without a trace of lust. Then the kiss deepened, and a growing trickle of lust started coming through. Unconsciously, Ranma's lips parted and Nabiki's tongue slipped into her mouth, their tongues dueling. Ranma moaned into the kiss, then stiffened and broke away towards the ceiling as she felt a hand slipping between her legs.

Nabiki froze. "Moving a bit too fast for you?" She sighed at Ranma's jerky nod, then smiled. "All right, I'll be good. Come on back down."

Ranma hesitantly floated back down and resumed their kiss, to find Nabiki as good as her word — hands ran along her back to the upper part of her ass, and along her sides to the swell of her breasts pressing against Nabiki's perky pair, but no further. Slowly, she again relaxed and sank into the bliss of the moment, as the warmth and lust again enveloped her and the energy she craved resumed trickling into her void.

Finally, Nabiki broke off the kiss and smiled ruefully up at her soon-to-be lover (even if it was still a little one-sided). "Ranma, as much as I'm enjoying this, we're going to have to move along or Kasumi's going to be knocking on the door to announce dinner, and that isn't how I want to break the news to her."

_Oh, crap, she's right!_ Ranma thought, feeling slightly panicky. There was something ... off ... about Kasumi. Ranma didn't doubt that Kasumi liked her and was glad to see her when their paths crossed, but something about the way she looked at her didn't quite feel right. Ranma considered it briefly, then put it to the side. Whatever Kasumi's problem might be, right now Ranma had something more important to take care of.

Floating down along Nabiki's body, Ranma captured the tip of one breast in her mouth and smiled to herself as she felt both the lust and the trickle of energy coming from Nabiki jump. She grasped Nabiki's other breast and started to massage it, only to freeze and look up at her friend's face when Nabiki gasped and a spike of pain overrode the pleasure she radiated.

"You're squeezing just a little too hard, Ranma — don't stop, just a little gentler, please."

Ranma frowned even as she eased up. "Didn't it work like this in the dreams?"

Nabiki chuckled. "The problem with dreams is that they're based on what we know, or rather what we _think_ we know. Since neither of us has much real practice to base our dreams on, be a little careful using them as a guide."

Ranma nodded and — carefully — resumed her ministrations of Nabiki's breasts, and sighed in relief as the flow of lust, pleasure and energy also resumed even as Nabiki resumed running her hands along Ranma's back. Running her free hand down along Nabiki's stomach, Ranma ran her fingers through the trimmed pubic curls framing her cleft, then smiled to herself as her hand slipped between Nabiki's legs and her new lover twitched and sucked in a deep breath. The pleasure and energy Ranma was drinking in took another jump.

"Liked that, did you?" Ranma asked, looking up and grinning.

"Oh, yes, please don't stop!" Nabiki breathed out, and Ranma returned to suckling at her breast while inserting several fingers. She slowly began to pump her fingers in as deep as they would reach, picking up speed as none of the pain she'd felt at her earlier blunder manifested while Nabiki's pleasure, and the energy filling Ranma's core, soared.

But as good as it felt, and as much as Nabiki was enjoying what Ranma was doing to her, something was missing. Driven by a need she could barely recognize, much less understand, Ranma pulled her fingers out and abandoned Nabiki's breasts to slide down along her body until her face was over Nabiki's crotch. Ranma took a deep breath and the scent of arousal hit her like a sledgehammer, indescribably sweeter than anything she'd ever smelled before, and Nabiki's half-coherent protests at Ranma's breaking off her lovemaking ended in a strangled shout as Ranma buried her face in the source of that captivating scent, licking and sucking for all she was worth and finding the flavor even more delicious than the scent had promised.

By now, Nabiki was babbling barely understandable promises to make Ranma's life a heaven on earth if only she wouldn't _stop_ even as, tremors running through her body, she replaced Ranma's attention to her breasts with her own hands. Ranma was just as lost in the intoxication of the moment. The bewitching flavor combining with the lust and energy flooding into her core in ever-increasing waves, all enfolded in the warm feeling Nabiki radiated, pushed Ranma to the same edge as her lover. Ranma wrapped her other arm under and around Nabiki's thigh to hold herself in place as Nabiki's hips bucked.

Then Ranma gave a muffled shout as her world exploded, the rising flow of energy turning into a deluge and washing her away even as Nabiki convulsed and screamed into the pillow she'd hastily pulled over her face.

/\

"Welcome back, beautiful," Ranma faintly heard Nabiki say as she slowly came back to her senses to find herself again enfolded in a gentle hug, her head resting on her lover's breast.

"Wow," Ranma murmured as she snuggled up against Nabiki. "That was ... was ... was ... I don't think anything could ever top that. It was even better than the first time."

Through her cheek, Ranma felt Nabiki's breast quiver as she chuckled. "Actually helping out beats just watching? _Big_ surprise there. So, are you full now?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah — overfull, feels like."

"Good," Nabiki responded, glancing at the clock, "because not only are we about out of time, but I don't think I could handle another orgasm like that for awhile." Then she sighed and sat up, transferring Ranma to her lap. With a hint of worry in her voice, she asked, "Ranma, are you all right? I know you're worried about what this might do to your manhood, and after the way my orgasms wiped you out I'd have to say you have a point."

Ranma was silent for a while, then finally just shook her head. "I dunno, Nabiki, I just dunno. This was great, an' I'm glad ta be able ta spend time here, but it isn't who I am!"

Nabiki winced. _I don't think you're going to have a choice, my friend. I guess I'll just have to try and cushion the blow and be there to pick up the pieces when you realize that._ For a moment, she blissfully considered that magical word, friend:_ a _real _friend, mine__ — best deal I ever made._ But she hadn't been kidding about the time, so pushing the thought into the back of her mind, she regretfully moved Ranma off her lap and stood up. "Well, you may be fed but I'm not, and there's no way I'm going to sit down to dinner smelling like this!" At Ranma's sour look she laughed. "I know, I know, you'll have to find a way to keep yourself occupied while I'm eating, but be good and I'll put in a movie for us to watch after — The Fellowship of the Ring, I think. You should like it, even if Americans made it."

* * *

The chapter title comes from the title of the song sung by Cathie Ryan. And yes, this is toned down to hopefully "M" rating. The full-up version is available at AO3.


End file.
